Charles II The Last Rally Hilaire Belloc

IHS Press, 2003-06-01. Paperback. New . 9x6x0. New Large Softcover Book; The Last Rally, Belloc narrates with clarity and vigor a central episode in the decline of the English Monarchy. Restored to the throne following the interlude of Cromwell's "Commonwealth," Charles II devoted his life as King of England to maintaining the integrity of the throne against all the forces arrayed against it; the power of the great landowners he worked through the Parliament; the influence of the Lawyer's Guild; and the irresistible mercantile and financial strength of the City of London. The story that Belloc brings to life is thus one of survival: the story of a ship of state brought "through peril and storm under a great captain, " It is also the story of manhood and determination in the face of overwhelmining odds; as such it is a story that Hilaire Belloc was eminently qualified to write. "If kingship would have remained, the Peasantry would have been saved. Also there would have been a considerable and well-organized traditonal Catholic body, which might have been a quarter of the nation, or at least a sixth...As it was, with the fall of the Stuarts, the Catholic Church in England was utterly crushed out.