The late 17th century was a period of extraordinary turbulence and
political violence in Britain, the like of which has never been seen
since. Beginning with the Restoration of the monarchy after the Civil
War, this book traces the fate of the monarchy from Charles II's
triumphant accession in 1660 to the growing discontent of the 1680s.
Harris looks beyond the popular image of Restoration England reveling in
its freedom from the austerity of Puritan rule under a merry monarch and
reconstructs the human tragedy of Restoration politics where people were
brutalized, hounded, and exploited by a regime that was desperately
insecure after two decade of civil war and republican rule.