Modern History

Reviled as a tyrant and canonized as a martyr, Charles I remains one of the most controversial of English monarchs. Basing her research on previously unseen royal correspondence, Leanda de Lisle follows the tragic career of a flawed king, sets the Civil War in the context of the wider European conflict of the Thirty Years' War, and highlights the crucial and often underestimated role of Charles’s wife Henrietta Maria.

In 1695, the short-lived Marriage Duty Act imposed a tax on births, marriages and burials, as well as an annual charge on bachelors over the age of 25 and childless widowers. The tax assessment relied on censuses and seven of these documents have survived for Lyme Regis. Transcribed in this volume, with a substantial introduction, the censuses give a valuable insight into the life and social structure of the town between 1695 and 1703.

What was it like to live in Henry VIII's palace at Hampton Court? How was he entertained? What clothes did his wives wear? Who were his servants and what jobs did they do? This book reveals details of the everyday life of the court and its often oppressive atmosphere of pageantry and display set against the power struggles of courtiers, the king's desire for a legitimate heir and his compulsion to collect and spend wealth.