“His Wife, said he, his Wife! O fatall sound!”

Abstract

In 1660, the exiled “Charles, by the grace of God, king of England, Scotland, France, and Ireland, defender of the faith, etc.,” represented himself to his nation in “The Declaration of Breda” as simultaneously God’s vice-regent and the supporter of law and justice, the harbinger of peace and the compassionate healer. The crown was, he claimed, “that right which God and nature hath made our due,” but the “desire … to enjoy what is ours” was no greater “than that all our subjects may enjoy what by law is theirs by a full extending … mercy where it is warranted and deserved.” Not a merciless tyrant, he was a just and charitable king, inviting his “loving subjects” to