Disguised as a working man, without even a weapon to protect himself, Charles II embarked upon one of the most romantic adventures in English history. His father, Charles I, had been beheaded by order of a high tribunal in the final round of a bitter struggle with Parliament and the army. And with his execution it seemed that the British monarchy had come to an end.
However, to the many subjects who remained loyal, the Prince of Wales was now King. Six feet tall, with regular, handsome features, young Charles was only nineteen years old. But he had grown up in the shadow of civil wars and did not lack for courage. Fearlessly he set out to rally an army of faithful Scotsmen and Englishmen.
Luck went against the young king. His army met with a crushing defeat and Charles was forced to flee from the wrath of Oliver Cromwell, Lord Protector of the new Commonwealth. While Cromwell's army scoured the land, Charles made his perilous way over the shires of England. A hunted man with a price on his head, he passed from the protection of one loyal friend to another. Those who recognized him held the King's life in their hands.
In this volume Charles Norman relates in vivid detail the breathtaking flight of Charles and the forces which eventually led to the restoration of the monarchy.
From the book
Charles II, the third of the Stuarts, upheld his predecessors' unflagging conviction in the divine right of kings. Reigning indolently over a country which yearned to serve their king, that king were to be devoted to his tasks, but who had already been whipped up into rebellion by the forceful reign of Cromwell, Charles II did little more to improve the status of the Stuarts than did his unfortunate father whose autocratic misunderstanding of his subjects cost him his head. Factually accurate but rather perfunctory in style, this portrayal is so lacking in dramatic technique as to seem a competent and lucid text rather than a full fledged biographical work.
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