The many sides to Charles II’s character have fascinated a succession of biographers. He has been seen as a shrewd and resourceful politician whose great indolence and frivolity were only a façade. However, in this biography, based on extensive research in archives in Britain, France and the United States, John Miller unravels the age in which Charles lived and reveals the large gap between his (and others’) perceptions and political reality.He suggests that, while Charles was astute and intelligent, his impatience of administrative detail, and a certain weakness of character, made it possible for others to manipulate and bully him. He found it difficult to make a decision and stick to it, so that for much of his reign he vacillated uncertainly between policy options. His experience of the civil wars also left him unwilling to trust his subjects and led him into policies which destroyed the fund of good will so evident in his people in 1660.John Miller shows, however, that with events moving to a crisis, Charles found the resolution which he had hitherto lacked, and in his last years he defeated his enemies and left the Stuart monarchy more powerful than ever before or after.John Miller is Professor of History at Queen Mary and Westfield College, University of London. He is the author of eight books, including Popery and Politics in England 1660–88 (1973), James II: A Study in Kingship (1978), Bourbon and Stuart: Kings and Kingship in France and England in the 17th Century (1987).