Sir John Evelyn (1620-1706) fought for Charles I in the Civil War, but left England in 1646 to tour France and Italy, studying art, anatomy and antiquities; he married Mary Browne, daughter of Sir Richard Browne, the English ambassador in Paris, in 1647. Evelyn returned home in time in 1651. Following the Restoration in 1660, he held a number of minor but socially very useful offices (for example, he established veterans’ hospitals and presented a study of pollution) in the court of King Charles II. Evelyn assisted in the establishment of the Royal Society, which elected him a Fellow in 1661, and his London home, Sayes Court, was made available to the Government, playing host among others to Tsar Peter the Great of Russia; the gardens were a matter of special pride, and Evelyn gained a reputation as an expert on trees. He wrote on a wide variety of subjects, and his diary, detailing his life and many contemporary events from 1641 onwards, is an invaluable historical record.
In 1657, Sir John Evelyn celebrated Christmas in a church for the first time in years. Unfortunately, someone told the authorities what he was doing.
In 1649, the execution of King Charles I left England in the hands of a Parliament of hardline Protestants determined to purge the Church of superstitious mumbo-jumbo. On Christmas Day 1657, Sir John Evelyn avoided the now dirty, unloved churches, clumsily improvised prayers and muddle-headed preachers, and found an old-fashioned Prayer Book service; but he did not enjoy it in peace.
The day after the Great Fire of London finally burned itself out, John Evelyn walked through the charred streets.
In 1665, an epidemic of plague claimed some 70,000 lives in London alone. Then on September 2nd, 1666, fire broke out in Pudding Lane, and raged for five days. Casualties were low, but dozens of churches and civic buildings were destroyed, and over 13,000 houses went up in flames leaving some 80,000 Londoners homeless. On the 7th, John Evelyn went wandering among the ashes.
Almost nine years after Oliver Cromwell’s army drove him from England, King Charles II returned at their invitation, and John Evelyn was there to see it.
On May 29th, 1660, King Charles II rode into London, nine years after his defeat at the Battle of Worcester and exile to the Continent. The King’s return was witnessed by diarist John Evelyn, who had fought for the Royalist cause. He too had endured exile, in France and in Italy, and since his return to London had chafed under Cromwell’s self-righteous nanny state.