Charles the younger was allowed to use the Royal arms with a "baton sinister, Vaire ... and was bred to the sea".

Sir William Dugdale wrote,[4] giving much testimony of his singular accomplishments: In the time of his youth, he was elevated to the peerage, 28 July 1675, as Baron of Dartmouth, Viscount Totness, and Earl of Plymouth, to the end he might be the more encouraged to persist in the paths of virtue, and thereby be the better fitted for the managery of great affairs when he should attain to riper years.He married on 19 September 1678 at St Mary's Church, Wimbledon, Surrey, Lady Bridget Osborne, third daughter of Thomas Osborne, 1st Duke of Leeds, Lord High Treasurer.

[5] He was a friend of the dramatic poet, Thomas Otway, for whom he procured a cornet's commission in a regiment of horse serving in Flanders.

[6] The Sultan Moulay Ismail of Morocco had made an unsuccessful attempt to seize the town of Tangier in 1679, but ended up imposing a crippling blockade.

Charles died of dysentery without issue on 17 October 1680, aged 23, and the English were ultimately forced to withdraw, ending their presence in Tangier.