Charles II paternity

[Drusilla]

Charles I was the shortest king in English history and blonde. His son,Charles II was one of the tallest and very dark. Am I missing something?

[jno]

one of Charles II's ancestors was Eleanor of Toledo, so perhaps Spanish blood was coming out

[Tatty Rollox]

........ and here is King Charles 1, and here is King Charles 11 ..............

[Peter Pedant]

and dont forget Samuel pepys

because everyone know the King has a large ----------.

 

apparently - I cant recollect which diary entry, but the king did a lot of things in public...

[kempie]

It isn't that uncommon for a 5' 4"(-ish) man to have a 6' 2" son.

Also Charles I doesn't appear very blonde in his portraits; even if he was, the blonde gene is recessive meaning both parents need to pass their copy to the child for it to manifest itself. Assuming Queen Henrietta Maria carried the gene then each of their offspring would only have a 25% probability of being blonde.

[jno]

Chalres I was only 4 foot 9 (presumably this was before Cromwell had him shortened.)

[kempie]

To quote Monty Python - "The most interesting thing about King Charles I is that he was 5' 6" tall at the start of his reign, but only 4' 8" tall at the end of it..."

Of course I cannot vouch for the king's true height, but I found multiple references to Charles I height being 5' 4" - such as here - although a quiz site states 4' 9" and a medieval trivia site 4' 7" .

[jno]

I think you're right kempie - don't know where I got 4' 9" from - it was years ago - but looking up books I've come across 5' 4" as well. Sorry to mislead. Charles was a frail child, not walking properly until he was four, so it may be that his development was retarded in infancy - which wouldn't be inherited by his children.

[Peter Pedant]

No boys and girls

Charles was short - I mean short.

There is no portrait of him standing WITH people. IF there is another person in the picture then Charles is on a horse. This is purely because if he stood with others, he would be towered over. This also contirbuted to his lack of persona.

[kempie]

PP - you must be very old if you actually met the man!