In 1660 the eighteen-year nightmare for English royalists of rebellion, regicide, and republicanism finally and dramatically came to a close. Soon after the arrival of General George Monck's army in London, events moved rapidly toward the disintegration of the Commonwealth. While the diehard republican John Milton would offer posterity a plaintive cry against “this noxious humour of returning to bondage,” most Englishmen welcomed the Convention's invitation to Charles II to return to rule his dead father's kingdom. The general public and political elites alike expressed great support for and confidence in the restored Stuart monarchy. The Cavalier Parliament elected in 1661 in the immediate euphoria following the restoration imprinted a decidedly pro-royalist stamp on the Restoration Settlement. Despite renewing the Triennial Act in 1664 declaring that the king should summon Parliament at least every three years, in other respects Parliament strengthened the power of the crown through a series of measures securing royal authority over the military, affirming the principle of nonresistance, and establishing strict treason laws. In some respects, the Cavalier Parliament acted more strenuously to efface the memory of the Commonwealth than even the new king himself. In spite of court support for limited toleration, Parliament passed a series of harsh laws, known as the Clarendon Code, to enforce religious uniformity and penalize the dissenters held by many English royalists to have been the chief instigators of the “late unhappy rebellion.”

However, within twenty years of Charles' return, events would expose the underlying fragility of the Restoration Settlement.