Charles II: His life and times

by Antonia Fraser

Book Overview

No Synopsis Available.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0297832212
• Release Date: January 1993
• Publisher: Weidenfeld & Nicolson
• Length: 264 Pages
• Weight: 1.85 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Short overview of the Merry Monarch

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.

Lady Antonia Fraser rules!

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.