CHARLES II. MANUSCRIPT ACCOUNT OF THE KING'S CHARACTER BY AN UNKNOWN AUTHOR

CHARLES II. MANUSCRIPT ACCOUNT OF THE KING'S CHARACTER BY AN UNKNOWN AUTHOR, EARLY 18TH C folio, seventeen paragraphs written in black ink in a clear hand over 4 ½p, the first headed "A short character of Charles the Second King of England", in royal armorial speckled calf binding with initials of George I flanking the 1714-1800 arms of the United Kingdom, rebackedThe anonymous writer's gossipy manner notwithstanding, the description of the king's nature, proclivities and foibles, even to the rumours surrounding his unexpected death, are not without interest, reflecting as they do the prevailing widespread perceptions of the 'merry monarch' in the early part of the 18th century.The writer begins with Charles' religious faith "which since his death hath made so much noise in the world, I yett dare confidently to affirm it to have been only that which is ..... unjustly counted none at all, I mean Deism...." Turning to the King's interest in the opposite sex, the writer observes that "there was as much as Laziness as of Love in all those hours he passed among his Mistresses, who after all, only serve to fill up his seraglio ..."