Excerpt from Charles II and His Court This baby was Charles, Prince of Wales, born 29 May, 1630; his mother is describing him in a letter to her old governess, Mme. De Motteville. His birth was greeted by innumerable poems, most of them containing some allusion to the star which had been visible as Charles I rode to St. Paul's to give thanks for the Queen's delivery.2 From this omen most men presaged that that prince should be of high undertakings and of no common glory among kings. If he had spoken of this later in life, Charles II might well have anticipated the words of Pope's Achilles, Portents and prodigies are lost on me! If, however, the star was, as Lilly the astrologer declared, the planet Venus, its appearance was certainly appropriate enough. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

Excerpt from Rochester and Other Literary Rakes of the Court of Charles II It will not be pretended in these pages that this little clique of writing and rhyming companions of Charles II. Had an important influence on English literature; yet they probably exercised upon it an influence of some sort; and their appearance in a Court abandoned to pleasure was somewhat pheno menal. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

Excerpt from Nell Gwynne of Old Drury: Our Lady of Laughter; A Romance of King Charles II and His Court In the front row of the pit of the new theatre in Drury Lane, with their backs to the stage, stood the orange girls, their baskets piled high with the golden fruit. In more or less melodi ous tones, and with repartee, sometimes rough, but almost always witty, they called their wares. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

Excerpt from Rochester and Other Literary Rakes of the Court of Charles II: With Some Account of Their Surroundings The frivolities and the vices of the Court of Charles II. are notorious; but, in contemptuously dismissing its courtiers from notice with short and scanty mention, students of their period have, perhaps, scarcely given sufficient recognition to the existence among them of a set of more or less literary rakes, of whom Rochester may be selected as one of the most characteristic. It will not be pretended in these pages that this little clique of writing and rhyming companions of Charles II. had an important influence on English literature; yet they probably exercised upon it an influence of some sort; and their appearance in a Court abandoned to pleasure was somewhat phenomenal. In a study of the rakish side of the Court of Charles II., and even in a study of the literary aspects of that rakishness, it will be necessary to enter some unsavoury places, and to mix among some questionable companions. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

Excerpt from Charles II Few words of introduction are necessary to this book. I need scarcely say that it does not pro fess to be a record in any completeness of the life and reign of Charles II. It is little more than the result of an endeavour to trace in outline the influences which acted upon the inherited qualities of Charles himself, and which made him what we know him to have been at thirty years of age and, in the second place, to give some idea of the illimitable confusion into which the domestic policy of England, her social morality, and her foreign relations, alike fell, because, at the moment when the reaction towards kingship in the House of Stuart had obscured other considerations, and when the loosening of all ties, social, moral, and political, had left the soil vacant for the seed of evil example, such a monarch came to the throne. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

Excerpt from The Last Days of Charles II My primary object in putting pen to paper has been to establish the true cause of the death of Charles II. I have therefore confined myself, as far as practicable, in what follows, to such matters only as bear directly or indirectly on this question. It would have been impertinent in me to discuss controversial matter in connexion with the diplomacy, the religion, the character or the lack of it in the man, in spite of its supreme interest. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

Excerpt from Royalty Restored or London Under Charles II, Vol. 1 of 2 No social history of the court of Charles II. has heretofore been written. The Grammont Memoirs, devoid of date and detail, and addressed 'to those who read only for amusement, ' present but brief imperfect sketches of the wits and beauties who thronged the court of the merry monarch whilst the brilliant Frenchman sojourned in England. Pepys, during the first nine years of the Restoration, narrates such gossip as reached him regarding Whitehall and the practices that obtained there. Evelyn records some trifling actions of the king and his courtiers, with a view of pointing a moral, rather than from a desire of adorning a tale. To supply this want in our literature, I have endeavoured to present a picture of the domestic life of a king, whose name recalls pages of the brightest romance and strangest gallantry in our chronicles. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

Excerpt from Reports of Special Cases Argued and Decreed in the Court of Chancery, in the Reigns of King Charles I. King Charles II. And King William III The chief Business of the Coart of Chancery, at that Time, was to mitigate the Rigour of the Common Law, and Clergyfnen were thought sufficiently qualified for that Purpose, who gave Relief according to their several Opi nions, in Cases where the Law seemed to bear too hard upon the Complain ants; and because they formed their Judgments by no settled or established Rules, therefore we have no Reports of their' Decrees. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.