The Children of Charles II: The Merry Monarch’s Fourteen Bastards

**PUBLICATION DATE: FEBRUARY 2025** 
(Please refer to the Terms and Conditions of Pre-Order below)

• A colourful picture of life in the uninhibited Restoration court
  
  
• Gives insights into the king’s unconventional family life as a devoted father, especially his relationship with his favourite, the ill-fated duke of Monmouth
  
  
• Closely examines the theory that Charles II was killed with the connivance of his brother, James II
  
  
• A study in the personal relationships between the half-siblings, their mothers, and the mothers with each other

King Charles II was the father of fourteen illegitimate children (if not more) by seven mistresses. Ironically, his marriage to Queen Catherine, a Portuguese princess, proved childless. The eldest and most notable of his children, James, duke of Monmouth, was effectively excluded from the line of succession. After his father’s death the duke launched an armed challenge for the crown against his uncle, then James II, but was defeated at the Battle of Sedgemoor and executed. Some of Charles’s other sons, notably Henry, duke of Grafton, Charles, duke of St Albans, and the youngest, Charles, duke of Richmond, took part in military and naval campaigns at home and overseas. Some of his daughters married into various branches of the British aristocracy—though not without occasional scandal—while one married a composer and another took holy orders. 

In the context of the relaxed morals of the Restoration court, this biography examines the sometimes poorly documented lives of each of Charles’s children, their personal relations with each other, their places in English history, their love affairs, and the lines of descent through which several key figures of the modern British royal family can trace their lineage.

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1. Pre-orders are charged at time of order and the order will be processed and posted to you as soon as the book becomes available.

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[authors] Author(s): John Van der Kiste [/authors] [button] View similar titles [/button]

[custom_html] **THIS BOOK WILL BE AVAILABLE FOR DISPATCH IN FEBRUARY 2025** 
(Please refer to the Terms and Conditions of Pre-Order)

A lively and entertaining biography of The Merry Monarch’s fourteen illegitimate children, their place at the royal court and in history.
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[smallDescription] **THIS BOOK WILL BE AVAILABLE FOR DISPATCH IN FEBRUARY 2025** 
(Please refer to the Terms and Conditions of Pre-Order)

A lively and entertaining biography of The Merry Monarch’s fourteen illegitimate children, their place at the royal court and in history.
[/smallDescription]



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John Van der Kiste has written over a hundred books including works on royal and historical biography, local history, true crime, music and fiction, and is a contributor to the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. His previous titles include Queen Victoria’s Children, Kaiser Wilhelm II and The Romanovs: Tsar Alexander II of Russia and his Family. He lives in Devon.

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