Charles I: An Abbreviated Life (Penguin Monarchs)

The most despised monarch in Britains historical memory The tragedy of Charles I dominates one of the most strange and painful periods in British history as the whole island tore itself apart over a deadly entangled series of religious and political disputes. In Mark Kishlanskys brilliant account it is never in doubt that Charles created his own catastrophe but he was nonetheless opposed by men with far fewer scruples and less consistency who for often quite contradictory reasons conspired to destroy him. This is a remarkable portrait of one of the most talented thoughtful loyal moral artistically alert and yet somehow disastrous of all of Englands rulers.