Plaidy - A Health Unto His Majesty: (The Stuarts)

Contents

A 30-year-old Charles II is rapturously welcomed back on the throne after years in exile. Needing funds he marries the wealthy Portuguese princess, Catherine of Braganza. But this is an unsuccessful match as his unattractive princess fails to provide him with an heir and the dowry never materializes. Although Charles always treats her with the utmost kindness, Catherine has to tolerate his many mistresses, notably the promiscuous beauty, Barbara Castelmaine.

The plot unfolds against a background of Plague, the Popish Plot and the Great Fire of London where underlying religious tensions promise to cause problems for the King. When his Catholic brother, James, looks likely to succeed him, the people rise up against Catholics. Even Queen Catherine is in danger when she is accused of plotting to kill her husband.

Jean Plaidy, one of the preeminent authors of historical fiction for most of the twentieth century, is the pen name of the prolific English author Eleanor Hibbert, also known as Victoria Holt. Jean Plaidys novels had sold more than 14 million copies worldwide by the time of her death in 1993.

THE TUDOR SAGA

Uneasy Lies the Head

Katharine, the Virgin Widow

The Shadow of the Pomegranate

The Kings Secret Matter

Murder Most Royal

St Thomass Eve

The Sixth Wife

The Thistle and the Rose

Mary, Queen of France

Lord Robert

Royal Road to Fotheringay

The Captive Queen of Scots

The Spanish Bridegroom

THE CATHERINE DE MEDICI TRILOGY

Madame Serpent

The Italian Woman

Queen Jezebel

THE STUART SAGA

The Murder in the Tower

The Wandering Prince

A Health Unto His Majesty

Here Lies Our Sovereign Lord

The Three Crowns

The Haunted Sisters

The Queens Favourites

THE FRENCH REVOLUTION SERIES

Louis the Well-Beloved

The Road to Compigne

Flaunting, Extravagant Queen

The Battle of the Queens

THE LUCREZIA BORGIA SERIES

Madonna of the Seven Hills

Light on Lucrezia

ISABELLA AND FERDINAND TRILOGY

Castile for Isabella

Spain for the Sovereigns

Daughters of Spain

THE GEORGIAN SAGA

The Princess of Celle

Queen in Waiting

Caroline the Queen

The Prince and the Quakeress

The Third George

Perditas Prince

Sweet Lass of Richmond Hill

Indiscretions of the Queen

The Regents Daughter

Goddess of the Green Room

Victoria in the Wings

THE QUEEN VICTORIA SERIES

The Captive of Kensington

The Queen and Lord M

The Queens Husband

The Widow of Windsor

THE NORMAN TRILOGY

The Bastard King

The Lion of Justice

The Passionate Enemies

THE PLANTAGENET SAGA

The Plantagenet Prelude

The Revolt of the Eaglets

The Heart of the Lion

The Prince of Darkness

The Battle of the Queens

The Queen from Provence

The Hammer of the Scots

The Follies of the King

The Vow of the Heron

Passage to Pontefract

The Star of Lancaster

Epitaph for Three Women

Red Rose of Anjou

The Sun in Splendour

QUEEN OF ENGLAND SERIES

Myself, My Enemy

Queen of this Realm: The Story of Elizabeth I

Victoria, Victorious

The Lady in the Tower

The Goldsmiths Wife

The Queens Secret

The Rose without a Thorn

OTHER TITLES

The Queen of Diamonds

Daughter of Satan

The Scarlet Cloak

Any novel dealing with the days of the Restoration must inevitably be impregnated with one characteristic which was a feature of the times: licentiousness. Therefore I feel that, when presenting this middle period of Charless life beginning with the Restoration, I must remind my readers that England had suddenly emerged from several years of drab Puritan rule. Bull-baiting and such sports had been suppressed, not from any consideration for the animals concerned, but solely because the people were known to enjoy those sports, and, in the opinion of their rulers, enjoyment and sin were synonymous; the taverns had been abolished; the great May Day festival was no more; Christmas festivities even the Christmas services in the churches were forbidden; the theatres were closed and their interiors broken up, and anyone caught play-acting was tied to a cart and whipped through the streets. It was therefore natural that, when the King returned, there should follow a turn-about, and it was only to be expected that the repressed population should swing violently in the opposite direction. Accordingly, no picture of Restoration days which ignores the fact would be a true one.

There may be some who will feel that my portrait of Charles is too flattering. I would say that excuses must be made for Charless weaknesses as for those of his people. His fortunes had been subject to a similar abrupt change; he had grown cynical during his exile and was determined never to go a-travelling again. He was the grandson of Henri Quatre, the greatest King the French had ever known, the man who had united France and put an end to the civil wars of religion when he had declared that Paris was worth a mass. It was understandable that Charles should regard his grandfather as an example to be followed. Henri Quatre had the same good nature, the same indifference to religion; he was known to have declared that conquest in love pleased him more than conquest in war, and he had more mistresses than any King of France had ever had or ever has had including the notorious Franois Premier. I would say that Charles was unlucky in living when he did. The great plague and the great fire ruined the commerce of the country while it was engaged on a major war. If he appeared flippant and preoccupied with his mistresses, while his country was in danger, he was not really so. His demeanour of indifference had been acquired during the hardening years of exile when disappointments had quickly followed one another; he did not show his feelings, but the real man is to be seen when, during the fire, he worked as hard as any, standing with water up to his ankles, passing buckets, shouting orders and witty encouragement, so that it was said that what was left of the City owed its survival to Charles and his brother. Charles wins my sympathy as the man whose kindness makes him unique in his times, the man who declared he was weary of the hangings of those men who had killed his father and been responsible for his own exile, as the man who visited Frances Stuart to comfort her when he no longer desired her and her friends had deserted her, and again as the husband who held the basin when his wife was sick the kind and tolerant King. For this King, careless and easy-going as he might be, and licentious as he certainly was, remains unique in his age on account of his kindness and tolerance.

In the research I have undertaken to write the book I have read a great number of works. I list below those which have been most helpful:

The National and Domestic History of England. William Hickman Smith Aubrey.

Bishop Burnets History of his Own Time.

King Charles II. Arthur Bryant.

Diary of John Evelyn. Edited by William Bray.

Diary and Correspondence of Samuel Pepys. Edited by Henry B. Wheatley.

The Diaries of Pepys, Evelyn, Clarendon and other Contemporary Writers.

Personal History of Charles II. Rev C. J. Lyon.

Beauties of the Court of Charles II