Charles the Second, King of England, Scotland, and IrelandIn Charles II, Ronald Hutton, Britain's foremost historian of the English Restoration, offers a comprehensive biography of the king who returned to England in triumph after the death of Cromwell, re-establishing the monarchy that continues to reign to this day. Hutton reveals the excitement and tragedy of Charles's youth, as the realm erupted into savage civil war, leading to the execution of his father King Charles I at the hands of the rebellious Parliament. He offers a vivid account of Charles's long, desperate struggle to claim his crown, which included the catastrophic invasion of Cromwell's England that ended in a lonely flight, as he hid in orchards, ditches, and the famous Boscobel Oak. Yet Charles persevered, and was finally recalled from exile by an exhausted nation in 1660. Charles emerges in this narrative as a "monarch in a masquerade," a charming, duplicitous, and astonishingly lucky king who spent less time governing than he did at play (when he wasn't hunting, racing, or sailing he was with one of a series of mistresses--he acknowledged seventeen bastards during his lifetime). His reign endured catastrophe and unrest, from the plague and the Great Fire of London, to defeat at the hands of the Dutch, to Protestant hysteria about a Catholic plot to seize the throne, to the disastrous results of his own secret diplomacy. But Charles in his good fortune survived it all, and this lively, eminently readable book presents an unmatched account of the private life and dramatic public career of a fascinating and enduring king, while capturing the politics and personalities of a mometentous era. |
Contents
Boyhood | 1 |
The Exiled Prince of Wales | 15 |
A King in Search of a Realm 16491650 | 34 |
Copyright | |
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alliance allies ambassador Anglesey Arlington army Arran Barrillon to Louis Bennet bill bishops BL Add Bristol brother Buckingham Burnet Carte Catholics Cavalier Parliament Charles Charles II Charles's Church Clarendon commission Commons Counsellors court courtiers Covenanters Coventry Cromwell CSPV Culpeper Danby declaration Diary dissenters Dublin Duke Dutch Earl enemies England English Essex exile favour fleet Foreign Affairs Committee France French Halifax Hamilton Hatton Henrietta Maria History HMC Ormonde MSS House Hyde to Nicholas instructions Ireland Irish Irish Privy Council James James's Juan-José King King's Kirk party Lauderdale Lauderdale Papers Letters London Lord Lord-Lieutenant Memoirs Middleton ministers monarch Monmouth Netherlands Nicholas Papers Ormonde Ormonde's Orrery political presbyterians Prince Privy Council Privy Counsellors promised Protestant Restoration royal royalist Rupert Scotland Scots Scottish Sealed Knot sent Shaftesbury soldiers Spain Spanish Spanish Netherlands States-General Sunderland Thurloe State Papers treaty Whigs Whitehall Wilhelm