Career
He went to Virginia as royal governor in 1642 and became a popular administrator. In 1644 he hastened to England to fight for the King in the Civil War, returning to Virginia the following year in time to suppress a great Indian uprising. He was forced from office by a fleet sent by Cromwell's government in 1652 but remained in the colony and was unanimously recalled to the governorship by the burgesses and council of Virginia in 1660, before the restoration of Charles II. While in London in 1661-1662, he published a pamphlet protesting against the Navigation Acts for their effect in curbing colonial trade.
Berkeley governed the colony for the next fourteen years without major incident. Late in 1675, however, Indian troubles broke out on Virginia's northern frontier, and Berkeley's refusal to allow the impatient frontiersmen, led by a young planter, Nathaniel Bacon, to take reprisals against all Indians, friendly or enemy, led to civil war in the colony in 1676. Jamestown, the capital, was burned, and much of the country was plundered. Charles II sent 1,000 troops to put down the rebellion, but Berkeley regained control in January 1677, before they arrived. His severity with the rebels was criticized, however, and he was supplanted by a royal commissioner.
