The Cavaliers in Exile 1640-1660 (Hardcover, 2003 ed.)

Between the meeting of the Long Parliament in November 1640 and the restoration of the monarchy in 1660, and as a consequence of the defeat of the armies of Charles I and the Civil Wars and the failure of subsequent royalist conspiracies and rising, several hundred Cavaliers went into exile on the Continent, for periods ranging from a few weeks to twenty years. This book examines their experience: the identity of the exiles; their reasons for leaving England; the extent of their travels in Europe; how they, and their families coped with the ordeal; the role of the different Stuart "courts" as magnets to the exiles; the return to England at the Restoration,; how they were treated on their return and how they had been influenced by their enforced resident abroad. This is the story of ordinary Cavaliers and how they attempted to survive as soldiers of fortune, secret agents, couriers, hangers-on at court and so on.