Statue of Charles II, Royal Hospital Chelsea Christopher Wren and construction continued from 1682 to 1691. The statue of Charles was commissioned by Tobias Rustat, a member of the king's court and was designed by Grinling Gibbons in about 1682. Gibbon's fee was £500. The statue originally stood elsewhere and was moved to the Royal Hospital after Charles's death in 1685. Annually, on 29 May, Oak Apple Day, the traditional day for the celebration of the Restoration in 1660, the statute is wreathed with oak leaves. The statue is of brass and was originally gilded in bronze. It has been re-gilded subsequently to commemorate the Golden Jubilee
History of the Puritans from 1649 to restore religious uniformity throughout England and they believed that only a restoration of the English monarchy could achieve this and suppress the sectaries. Most Presbyterians were therefore supportive of the Restoration of Charles II. Charles II's most loyal followers - those who had followed him into exile on the continent, like Sir Edward Hyde - had fought the English Civil War largely in defense of episcopacy and insisted that episcopacy be restored in the Church of England. Nevertheless, in the Declaration of Breda, issued in April 1660, a month before Charles II's return to England, Charles II proclaimed that