When Charles I was beheaded, Charles II escaped to Europe where he lived a life of incredible poverty, bedded a wide variety of women and sparred with his mother before he returned to England to restore the monarchy. This is a brilliant biography of Charles II, one of England's most glamorous kings. Coote introduces the reader to the drama and danger of an England torn by civil war, ruled over by a villanous Cromwell and populated with the lustful, rapacious and streetwise women Charles bedded on his road to his restored throne: Lady Castlemaine, Lady Porstmouth, Nell Gwynn, and Hortense Mancini among others.