The King's Bed

While amply fulfilling the salacious promise of its title, this very listenable history of the Merry Monarch and his crew turns out also to be well researched and well written. Narrator Steve West delivers all this in the most proper English, and with subdued relish. Britain probably had no livelier or more colorful reign, or one more fraught with problems: plague, fire, a Dutch invasion, cynicism and corruption in government, the king fecund everywhere but in his queen's bed. Here is an era when theater, wit, politics, and sex were each a high art--and as history, provide the highest entertainment value. Interestingly, Charles's bloodline persists in British royals not through the legitimate but the illegitimate line--via Diana Spencer. D.A.W. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2016, Portland, Maine

January 11, 2016
In this balanced narrative, Jordan and Walsh (White Cargo) contextualize the reign of Charles II (1630–1685) in light of his numerous mistresses, arguing that his aversion to conflict allowed them to influence policy, helped bankrupt the country, and nearly resulted in subjugation to France’s Louis XIV. The restoration of the “Merry Monarch” ushered in a frivolous, sex-saturated, court-led 17th-century sexual revolution that shocked many, but also reassured a country that was weary of religious stridency after the execution of the king’s Catholic father and Charles’s own exile during the Commonwealth. Solid research and wry observations neatly augment the chronological narrative, although the unflattering and simplistic description of actress Moll Davis suffers from too much reliance on one source (Samuel Pepys, an ardent admirer of her rival Barbara Palmer). Jordan and Walsh also struggle with miscarriage and stillbirth terminology in their discussion of the infertile queen, but excel in describing the king’s unusual willingness to claim and promote many of his illegitimate children. With the fully developed fleshing out of Charles and four of his primary mistresses, the authors provide authentic insight on how salacious sex and the pursuit of pleasure ruled a troubled king. Illus. Agent: George Lucas, Inkwell Management.