Overview
Royal Survivor is an important new biography of Charles II, one of Britain’s most glamorous kings. In a sweeping narrative that takes the reader from palaces and battlefields through exile, bitterness, triumph and deceit, acclaimed biographer Stephen Coote strips away the sentiment that has clouded Charles’s "merry monarch" image. He reveals Charles as an altogether more fascinating, brave and dangerous man––a gambler, a rogue, a survivor.Born into the opulent court of the early Stuarts, the boy Charles had wealth and security taken from him as he was plunged into the agonies of the Civil War. After the defeat of his family, he learned the hard lessons of exile. Charles, determined to regain the throne that was rightfully his, led a Scottish army into England but was defeated at the Battle of Worcester. Then followed his thrilling escape: the King of England, disguised as an ordinary man, fled for his life. Years of poverty and homelessness ensued, and when a chain of unforeseen events restored him to the throne in 1660, Charles had become a tough and cynical survivor.
Stephen Coote depicts the twists and turns of Restoration public life, weaving these together with the major events of the day, including the Plague and the Fire of London. He takes us behind the scenes of Charles’s private life to meet the many mistresses: the lustful and ambitious Lady Castlemaine, the beautiful but rapacious Lady Portsmouth, the gloriously streetwise Nell Gwyn and the exotic Hortense Mancini. Coote offers a vivid account of a nation growing ever more hysterical as fears of absolute monarchy and Roman Catholic influence gripped the land and climaxed in the Popish Plot.
Royal Survivor profiles an extraordinarily shrewd man who outlasted his enemies to save the monarchy, even as forces were slowly forming that would make England the cradle of modern democracy.