Download or read book Charles II written by Antonia Fraser and published by George Weidenfeld & Nicholson. This book was released on 1993-01-01 with total page 264 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The story of King Charles II is one of enduring fascination. The golden childhood of the boy Prince in the Van Dyck pictures gave way to an adventurous youth in Civil War England and abroad, ending traumatically when his father was executed in 1649. Charles II, King at eighteen, succeeded to `nothing but the name'. After his valiant attempt to regain the throne was defeated by Cromwell at Worcester, the King made his epic escape - to years of exile, poverty and humiliation in Europe. The `miraculous' Restoration ushered in a reign coloured by a series of equally dramatic events: the Great Plague, the Fire of London, two Dutch Wars, the bizarre Popish Plot, and finally the efforts of the Whigs to exclude his Catholic brother James from the succession, culminating in the King's unexpected triumph over them at the Oxford Parliament of 1681. A lover of women, passionate planner of parks and palaces and friend of the arts, this was the man who was to overcome the many problems of his reign and die not only in control of his country but in the affection of his countrymen. In this meticulously researched biography, Antonia Fraser offers important judgements and reassessments on central questions of the reign, such as Charles's relationships, his attitude to Kingship, his patriotism and his religious beliefs. Above all she has succeeded in writing a totally compelling narrative, both moving and exciting, and showing all the skills and insights which have secured her place as one of the foremost biographers of our time. `A rich feast of instruction, drama and entertainment' TLS `The fullest and most sophisticated account of the most charming and approachable of English Kings' OBSERVER

Download or read book Charles the Second King of England Scotland and Ireland written by Ronald Hutton and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 1989 with total page 586 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A biography of the king who is remembered by the English with more popular affection than any almost any other. Covering his entire life, it takes in his colourful years as a prince and as an exiled monarch during the Civil War and Interregnum, in addition to his later career as effective ruler of three kingdoms.

Download or read book King Charles II written by Antonia Fraser and published by Hachette UK. This book was released on 2011-06-16 with total page 722 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Following a youth of poverty and bitter exile after his father's execution, the ousted king first challenged, then made his magnificent escape from, Cromwell's troops before he was eventually restored to his throne in triumph in 1660. Spanning his life both before and after the Restoration, Antonia Fraser's lively and fascinating biography captures all the vitality of the man and the expansiveness of the age.

Download or read book The King s Revenge written by Michael Walsh and published by Little, Brown Book Group. This book was released on 2012-08-28 with total page 358 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: When Charles I was executed, his son Charles II made it his role to search out retribution, producing the biggest manhunt Britain had ever seen, one that would span Europe and America and would last for thirty years. Men who had once been among the most powerful figures in England ended up on the scaffold, on the run, or in fear of the assassin's bullet. History has painted the regicides and their supporters as fanatical Puritans, but among them were remarkable men, including John Milton and Oliver Cromwell. Don Jordan and Michael Walsh bring these remarkable figures and this astonishing story vividly to life an engrossing, bloody tale of plots, spies, betrayal, fear and ambition.

Download or read book To Catch A King Charles II s Great Escape written by Charles Spencer and published by HarperCollins UK. This book was released on 2017-10-05 with total page 317 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How did the most wanted man in the country outwit the greatest manhunt in British history?

Download or read book Prince Charles written by Sally Bedell Smith and published by Random House. This book was released on 2017-04-04 with total page 657 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A “masterly account” (The Wall Street Journal) of the life and loves of King Charles III, Britain’s first king since 1952, shedding light on the death of Diana, his marriage to Camilla, and his preparations to take the throne Sally Bedell Smith returns once again to the British royal family to give us a new look at the man who was the oldest heir to the throne in more than three hundred years. This vivid, eye-opening biography—the product of four years of research and hundreds of interviews with palace officials, former girlfriends, spiritual gurus, and more, some speaking on the record for the first time—is the first authoritative treatment of Charles’s life. Prince Charles brings to life the real man, with all of his ambitions, insecurities, and convictions. It begins with his lonely childhood, in which he struggled to live up to his father’s expectations and sought companionship from the Queen Mother and his great-uncle Lord Mountbatten. It follows him through difficult years at school, his early love affairs, his intellectual quests, his entrepreneurial pursuits, and his intense search for spiritual meaning. It tells of the tragedy of his marriage to Diana; his eventual reunion with his true love, Camilla; and his relationships with William, Kate, Harry, and his grandchildren. Ranging from his glamorous palaces to his country homes, from his globe-trotting travels to his local initiatives, Smith shows how Prince Charles possesses a fiercely independent spirit and yet spent more than six decades waiting for his destined role, living a life dictated by protocols he often struggles to obey. With keen insight and the discovery of unexpected new details, Smith lays bare the contradictions of a man who is more complicated, tragic, and compelling than we knew, until now.

Download or read book A Gambling Man written by Jenny Uglow and published by Macmillan + ORM. This book was released on 2010-11-23 with total page 855 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Restoration was a decade of experimentation: from the founding of the Royal Society for investigating the sciences to the startling role of credit and risk; from the shocking licentiousness of the court to failed attempts at religious tolerance. Negotiating all these, Charles II, the "slippery sovereign," laid odds and took chances, dissembling and manipulating his followers. The theaters may have been restored, but the king himself was the supreme actor. Yet while his grandeur, his court, and his colorful sex life were on display, his true intentions lay hidden. Charles II was thirty when he crossed the English Channel in fine May weather in 1660. His Restoration was greeted with maypoles and bonfires, as spring after the long years of Cromwell's rule. But there was no way to turn back, no way he could "restore" the old dispensation. Certainty had vanished. The divinity of kingship had ended with his father's beheading. "Honor" was now a word tossed around in duels. "Providence" could no longer be trusted. As the country was rocked by plague, fire, and war, people searched for new ideas by which to live. And exactly ten years after he arrived, Charles would again stand on the shore at Dover, this time placing the greatest bet of his life in a secret deal with his cousin, Louis XIV of France. Jenny Uglow's previous biographies have won the James Tait Black Memorial Prize and International PEN's Hessell-Tiltman Prize for History. A Gambling Man is Uglow at her best: both a vivid portrait of Charles II that explores his elusive nature and a spirited evocation of a vibrant, violent, pulsing world on the brink of modernity.

Download or read book The Last Royal Rebel written by Anna Keay and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2016-05-19 with total page 481 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 'A superb biography, which paints a vivid picture of the times and of her subject' Daily Telegraph 'Fascinating, compelling, outrageous and ultimately tragic' Simon Sebag Montefiore 'It is the best royal biography I have read in years' A.N. Wilson From the Duff Cooper Prize-winning author of The Restless Republic, a remarkable biography of one of the most intriguing figures of the Restoration era. James, Duke of Monmouth, the favoured illegitimate son of Charles II, was born in exile the year his grandfather Charles I was executed and the English monarchy abolished. Abducted from his mother on his father's orders, he emerged from a childhood in the backstreets of Rotterdam to command the ballrooms of Paris, the brothels of Covent Garden and the battlefields of Flanders. Such was his appeal that when the monarchy itself came under threat, the cry was for Monmouth to succeed Charles II as king. He inspired both delight and disgust, adulation and abhorrence and, in time, love and loyalty. Louis XIV was his mentor, Nell Gwyn his protector, D'Artagnan his lieutenant, William of Orange his confidant, John Dryden his censor and John Locke his comrade. In The Last Royal Rebel, Anna Keay matches rigorous scholarship with a storyteller's gift to enrapturing effect. She paints a vivid portrait of the warm, courageous and handsome Duke of Monmouth, a man who by his own admission 'lived a very dissolute and irregular life', but who was ultimately prepared to risk everything for honour and justice. His story, culminating in his fateful invasion, provides a sweeping chronicle of the turbulent decades in which England as we know it was forged.

Download or read book Charles I written by Christopher Hibbert and published by Macmillan. This book was released on 2007-06-12 with total page 296 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: When Charles Stuart was a young child, it seemed unlikely that he would survive, let alone become ruler of England and Scotland. Once shy and retiring, an awkward stutterer, he grew in stature and confidence under the guidance of the Duke of Buckingham; his marriage to Henrietta of Spain, originally planned to end the conflict between the two nations, became, after rocky beginnings, a true love match. Charles I is best remembered for having started the English Civil War in 1642 which led to his execution for treason, the end of the monarchy, and the establishment of a commonwealth until monarchy was restored in 1660. Hibbert's masterful biography re-creates the world of Charles I, his court, artistic patronage, and family life, while tracing the course of events that led to his execution for treason in 1649.

Download or read book Old Rowley written by Dennis Wheatley and published by Arrow. This book was released on 1969 with total page 191 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book The Loves of Charles II written by Jean Plaidy and published by National Geographic Books. This book was released on 2005-10-25 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From princesses to country girls to actresses…the loves of Charles II come to life. Ten years after Charles I was deposed and executed, his son, Charles II, regains the throne after many years in exile. Charles is determined not only to restore the monarchy but also to revive a society that has suffered under many years of Puritan rule, when everything from theater to Christmas festivals was illegal. As king, Charles II throws himself into the gaiety of court life, becoming a patron of the arts and a consummate lover of women. He first secures a strong dynastic alliance by marrying Catherine of Braganza, a shy, plain Portuguese princess who falls in love with her handsome husband and brings him great wealth, but can never give him the son he longs for. For many years, his “untitled queen” is a bold and sensual older woman—Barbara, Countess of Castlemaine—whose husband is routinely paid to look the other way. But when the politically ambitious Lady Castlemaine becomes too powerful, she is replaced by Louise de Kéroualle, a baby-faced French noblewoman who may have been sent to Charles’s court as a spy. His other great love, and Louise’s rival, is Nell Gwyn, a stage actress who rises from the streets of London to become the king’s favorite and a hero of the working class. Court intrigue and affairs of the heart weave together in this unforgettable page-turner.

Download or read book The King s Bed written by Don Jordan and published by Hachette UK. This book was released on 2015-01-08 with total page 309 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: To refer to the private life of Charles II is to abuse the adjective. His personal life was anything but private. His amorous liaisons were largely conducted in royal palaces surrounded by friends, courtiers and literally hundreds of servants and soldiers. Gossip radiated throughout the kingdom. Charles spent most of his wealth and his intellect on gaining and keeping the company of women, from the lowest sections of society such as the actress Nell Gwyn to the aristocratic Louise de Kérouaille. Some of Charles' women played their part in the affairs of state, colouring the way the nation was run. Don Jordan and Michael Walsh take us inside Charles' palace, where we will meet court favourites, amusing confidants, advisors jockeying for political power, mistresses past and present as well as key figures in his inner circle such as his 'pimpmasters' and his personal pox doctor. The astonishing private life of Charles II reveals much about the man he was and why he lived and ruled as he did. The King's Bed tells the compelling story of a king ruled by his passion.

Download or read book Mistresses written by Linda Porter and published by Picador. This book was released on 2021-04-15 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: According to the great diarist, John Evelyn, Charles II was 'addicted to women', and throughout his long reign a great many succumbed to his charms. Clever, urbane and handsome, Charles presided over a hedonistic court, in which licence and licentiousness prevailed.Mistresses is the story of the women who shared Charles's bed, each of whom wielded influence on both the politics and cultural life of the country. From the young king-in-exile's first mistress and mother to his first child, Lucy Walter, to the promiscuous and ill-tempered courtier, Barbara Villiers. From Frances Teresa Stuart, 'the prettiest girl in the world' to history's most famous orange-seller, 'pretty, witty' Nell Gwynn and to her fellow-actress, Moll Davis, who bore the last of the king's fifteen illegitimate children. From Louise de Kéroualle, the French aristocrat - and spy for Louis XIV - to the sexually ambiguous Hortense Mancini. Here, too, is the forlorn and humiliated Queen Catherine, the Portuguese princess who was Charles's childless queen. Drawing on a wide variety of original sources, including material in private archives, Linda Porter paints a vivid picture of these women and of Restoration England, an era that was both glamorous and sordid.

Download or read book King Charles written by Robert Jobson and published by Diversion Books. This book was released on 2019-11-12 with total page 340 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An exhaustive and revealing biography of Britain’s new monarch, King Charles III, with fresh reporting by the journalist the Wall Street Journal dubbed “the Godfather of royal reporting.” With exclusive interviews and extensive research, King Charles delivers definitive insight into the extraordinary life of His Royal Highness, former Prince of Wales, as he takes the throne, a watershed moment in modern history and in the British monarchy. New York Times bestselling author Robert Jobson debunks the myths about the man who became king, going beyond banal, bogus media caricatures of Charles to tell his true story. Jobson—who has spent nearly thirty years chronicling the House of Windsor, and has met Charles on countless occasions—received unprecedented cooperation from Clarence House, what was the Prince’s office, in writing this illuminating biography. King Charles divulges the full range of Charles’s profoundly held political beliefs: the United Kingdom’s special relationship to the United States, climate change, Brexit, and immigration—to ultimately portray the kind of monarch Charles III will be. Jobson taps a number of sources close to the now-King who have never spoken on the record before, plus members of the Royal Household who have served Charles during his decades of public life. This comprehensive profile also reveals the late Queen Elizabeth’s plans to transition Charles to the throne; how at her insistence he already reads all government briefings; and why he feels it is his constitutional duty to relay his thoughts to ministers in his controversial “black spider memos.” Moreover, King Charles reveals the truth about Charles's deeply loving but occasionally volatile relationship with his second wife and chief supporter, Camilla. The result is an intriguing new portrait of a man who at last has become king.

Download or read book The Life of Henrietta Anne written by Melanie Clegg and published by Pen and Sword. This book was released on 2017-09-30 with total page 271 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This biography of the seventeenth-century English princess tells a sweeping tale of war and exile, marriage and scandal, and a triumphant reversal of fortune. Henrietta Anne Stuart, youngest child of Charles I and Henrietta Maria, was born in June 1644 in the besieged city of Exeter at the very height of the English Civil War. The hostilities had separated her parents, and her mother was on the run from Parliamentary forces when she gave birth with only a few attendants on hand. Within a few days she was on her way to the coast for a moonlit escape to her native France, leaving her infant daughter in the hands of trusted supporters. A few years later, Henrietta Anne would herself be whisked, disguised as a boy, out of the country and reunited with her mother in France, where she stayed for the rest of her life. But Henrietta’s fortunes dramatically changed for the better when her brother, Charles II, was restored to the throne in 1660. After being snubbed by her cousin Louis XIV, she would eventually marry his younger brother Philippe, Duc d’Orlans, and quickly become one of the luminaries of the French court—though there was a dark side to her rise to power and popularity when she became embroiled in love affairs with her brother-in-law Louis and her husband’s former lover, the dashing Comte de Guiche, giving rise to several scandals and rumors about the true parentage of her three children. However, Henrietta Anne was much more than just a mere court butterfly. She also possessed considerable intelligence, wit, and political acumen, which led to her being entrusted in 1670 with the delicate negotiations for a secret treaty between her brother Charles II and cousin Louis XIV—which ensured England’s support of France in their war against the Dutch. This is the story of her remarkable life.

Download or read book Charles The Heart of a King written by Catherine Mayer and published by Random House. This book was released on 2015-02-05 with total page 354 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Sunday Times Top Ten Bestseller 'Breathtaking' The Times '[The book that] made headlines around the world.' Independent The former Prince of Wales has lived his whole life in the public eye, yet he remains an enigma. He was born to be king, but he aims much higher. A landmark publication, Charles: The Heart of a King reveals Prince Charles in all his complexity: the passionate views that mean he will never be as remote and impartial as his mother; the compulsion to make a difference and the many and startling ways in which the Prince and now King of the United Kingdom and fifteen other realms has already made his mark. The book offers fresh and fascinating insights into the first marriage that did so much to define him and an assessment of his relationship with the woman he calls, with unintended accuracy, his 'dearest wife': Camilla, now Queen Consort. We see Charles as a father and a friend, a serious figure and a joker. Life at court turns out to be full of hidden dangers and unexpected comedy. Now, updated and revised with a new preface and two new chapters - covering details of Harry and Meghan's exit and its implications, the cash-for-honours scandal, Prince Andrew, and more - this significant study reveals a monarchy threatened and a man in sight of happiness yet still driven by anguish and a remarkable belief system, a charitable entrepreneur, activist, agitator and avatar of the Establishment who just as often tilts against it. Based on multiple interviews with his friends and courtiers, palace insiders and critics, and rare access to Charles himself, before his kingship, this biography explores the Prince's philanthropy and his compulsive interventionism, his faith, his significant impact on politics and the philosophy that means when he seeks harmony he sometimes creates controversy. Gripping, at times astonishing, often laugh-out-loud, this is a royal biography unlike any other. 'A must-read ... this important book is nothing short of a manual to our future King's world-view' GQ 'A sustained piece of higher journalism' Independent

Download or read book Restoration written by Rose Tremain and published by Random House. This book was released on 2012 with total page 434 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An ambitious young medical student abandons his studies to revel at the court of King Charles II.