Charles II and the Politics of Access

Book DescriptionIn an era dominated by monarchs like Louis XIV and Philip IV who used distance to generate awe, Charles II's reputation for accessibility stands out. Most scholars enamored with anecdotes about the restored monarch's many mistresses, his rakish companions, and his spaniels have assumed that Charles's personality inevitably led him to open access and that such accessibility remained a constant throughout his reign. Charles II and the Politics of Access argues to the contrary that politicalconcerns, not personality, brought this king to at first favor open access, for he believed that accessibility would aid him in uniting his strife-torn nation and thereby help to secure his throne. But when Charles II's political agenda changed so too did his policies of access: when he abandoned his goal of uniting his nation he also abandoned his commitment to accessibility. Even so he continued to use access to his person as a potent political tool, strictly regulating

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