The Image of the King: Charles I and Charles II

by Richard Ollard

"Remarkably and immensely readable...A just yet compassionate study of two complex, muddled, fissured human beings caught in the most difficult of crafts--kingship...It should not be missed by anyone interested in the Stuarts or in the personalities of Charles I and Charles II: indeed, any reader will be greatly stimulated by it."--J.H. Plumb, New York Review of Books. Two kings, father and son...and yet, their personalities could hardly have differed more. Through sources as varied as masks, statues, poems, medals, and contemporary written records, a picture of these Stuart monarchs, their characters and their politics, emerges.

Genres: Biography, History

211 pages, Hardcover

Published March 27, 1993

About the author

Richard Laurence Ollard was an English historian and biographer. He is best known for his work on the English Restoration period. He was educated at Eton College where he was a King's Scholar. He joined the Navy during the Second World War and won an exhibition to New College, Oxford at its conclusion. For twelve years from 1948 to 1959 Ollard taught history at the Royal Naval College, Greenwich in London. In 1960 he joined the publisher Collins as a senior editor, where he worked until his retirement in 1983. After his retirement from Collins he continued to research and publish widely and lived in Morecombelake, Dorset.

Interests and achievements:

- In 1992 he was awarded the Caird Medal by the Trustees of the National Maritime Museum.
- In 1997 he was joint winner of the Heywood Hill Prize for a lifetime's contribution to the pleasure of reading.
- Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature (FRSL)
- Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London (FSA)
- Past Vice President of the Navy Records Society
- An honorary member of the Samuel Pepys Club

Reviews

[Jason Goodwin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ollard writes with such precision and intelligence: brushing up against the brightest 17th century writers has made his own prose deliciously recondite, and his judgements - and illustrations - are very good. Not the first book you'd want to read about the Stuart kings,but indispensable second.