Customer Reviews

The Life and Times of Charles II.

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If you don't want to wade through a large tome on Charles II, this is the book for you. It's fairly short, filled with illustrations, and yet hits all the important points of England's most popular rex. Charles II was a happening dude, with a love of life and people, and his ability to overcome his tumultous childhood and adult intrigues is truly amazing. This isn't just a pure bio, however, because as the title implies, this is also about the times of Charles II, and what amazing events took place. Plague, devasting fire, wars, regicides, you name it, the times they were amazing. So was Charles II, a magnetic leader, if there ever was one. The monarchy has been all down hill ever since.

This is a very quick read that gives one a picture of the stages in the life of Charles II, with whom the monarchy was restored after the English Civil War and the Protectorate (dictatorship) of Cromwell. The book does not go very deeply into politics as they pertain to the business of governance or the life of the people of England, but rather considers politics only as they pertain to the fortunes of the monarch. Charles II was popular, and has remained so in popular conception, but the reality of his reign was largely the unconcealed use of public funds to support his extravagant and frivolous lifestyle. The book does allow one to glimpse this, and in general to see something of the power politics in 17th Century England, though the focus is much more on producing a simple portrait of a colourful figure.

No historian writes history like Antonia Fraser does. The lives and times of Charles the Second were quite remarkable and both his predecessor and sucsessor were ousted from their crown but Charles II managed to gain the crown and keep it until his death. The odds were against him and he had to flee fatherless (his father Charkes the first was executed for treason) and penniless to the continent chased by Cromwell and his spies. Charles II was a complex person but one thing that can not be taken from him is that he was a consumated survivalist in a very dangerous political climate. Lady Fraser does an excellent job of recounting his lifespan and it is not often that history books read like a thriller. "Life and times of Charles II: Kings and Queens of England" is a page turner in the truest sense of the word.