Als er im Sterben lag, "[he] received from the priest who had saved him at the Battle of Worcester, now an old man, the sacrament which the Catholic Church had never permitted him to receive before." (in: Marie Ruan Hopkinson: Anne of England – The Biography of a great Queen, id., p. 94).
Die letzten Tage von Karl II. Stuart: "The evening of February the first ... he spent with his dissolute associates … The courtiers were gambling, with a bank of two thousand pounds before them. … From this scene of profanity and dissoluteness, the King proceeded to the apartments of the Duchess of Portsmouth [ Louise de Kéroüalle], where, being too unwell to partake of a substantial supper, he ate two or three spoonfuls of soup. After passing a feverish and restless night, he rose at an early hour. To his attendants he appeared to be labouring under an affection of the brain; he was drowsy and absent, his gait was unsteady, and his speech embarrassed. About eight, as he walked across his chamber, he was seized with a strong fit of apoplexy;: Lord Aylesbury caught him as he fell, and Dr. King, a physician, who had practised as a surgeon, being in an adjoining room, hastened to his assistance, and instantly opened a vein. The blood flowed freely, and stimulating remedies being applied, the royal patient in about two hours recovered his faculties. He suffered a relapse in the evening, passed a bad night, but so improved in the course of the next day, that hopes were cherished of his recovery. … The King, on recovering his speech, after his first attack, asked for the Queen, and found she was by his side. Instantly, on hearing of his illness, she had rushed to his presence, and the Duke of York [sein Bruder Jakob II. (VII.) Stuart] had preceded, and the Duchess of York soon followed her Majesty. … Shortly afterwards, the sight of her husband’s sufferings threw her into fits, and she was carried out of the room. … About two in the morning [am 4. Februar], he cast his eyes upon the Duke, who was kneeling by his bedside, kissing his hand, and thanked him for having always been the best of brothers and friends; begged his pardon for the trouble which he had given him from time to time, and told him now he freely left him all, and begged of God to bless him with a prosperous reign. He never mentioned the name of the Duke of Monmouth; but sending for his other illegitimate sons, he recommended them to the care of James [seinem Bruder Jakob II. (VII.) Stuart], and drawing each to him, one by one, on the bed, gave them a father’s blessing. The bishops, moved by this sight, urged him as the Lord’s anointed, and the father of his country, to bless all present in the name of the whole body of his subjects; every one in the chamber instantly went down on his knees, and Charles, being raised up, pronounced a solemn blessing over them. He then entreated the Duke of York not to let 'poor Nelly Gwyr: starve,' and for his sake to protect the Duchesses of Portsmouth and Cleveland. Afterwards he endeavoured to repose, but his next slumber was to be the sleep of death. … he calmly expired about noon, on the sixth of February, 1685 …" (in: Francis Lancelott: The Queens of England and their Times, Volume II, id., pp. 738-740).
"After the death of King Charles II the ordinary people walked about 'like ghosts'. Roger North wrote that 'almost every living soul cried before and at his Decease, as for the loss of the best Friend in the World'. Others felt that they had lost a father, that feeling spontaneously expressed at the King's death-bed when all present, not only his children, had knelt for his paternal blessing." (in: Antonia Fraser: King Charles II, id., p. 458).