The Restoration - A Political And Religious History Of England And Wales 1658-1667

The Restoration sounds cheerful, as if England simply dusted off the monarchy and carried on. Ronald Hutton’s The Restoration is here to remind us that history is rarely so obliging.

Covering England and Wales from 1658 to 1667, this is the story of a country trying to put itself back together after civil war, republic, religious upheaval, political exhaustion, and the awkward realisation that nobody entirely agreed what “normal” was supposed to look like. Charles II returns, the monarchy is restored, and everyone politely pretends this solves everything. It does not.

Hutton digs into the politics, religion, power struggles, compromises, anxieties, and opportunism of the period with scholarly precision. Bishops, Parliament, royalists, republicans, dissenters, courtiers, clergy, and nervous local officials all jostle for space in a settlement that was less a neat reset than a national negotiation conducted under pressure.

This 2001 Clarendon Paperbacks edition, in good condition, is a solid copy of a serious academic history. Ideal for readers who like the 17th century messy, argumentative, and full of people discovering that bringing back the king was only the beginning of the problem.

The Restoration is history with wigs, theology, suspicion, and paperwork — proof that even a political comeback tour needs administration.

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