On the evening of 17 October 1678 the body of Sir Edmund Berry Godfrey, a Westminster Justice of the Peace, was discovered in a ditch near Primrose Hill. He had been pierced with his own sword and apparently strangled. His death lead to a widespread popular hysteria about a "Popish Plot". Although a magistrate famous for his fierce rectitude, Godfrey was closely involved with the alternative healer and "stroker", Valentine Greatrakes and also played a part in many plots and and intrigues centred on the uninhibited court of Charles II and Restoration London. His death brought to a head a series of rumours about Catholic plots to kill Charles II and install his brother, James, Duke of York, on the throne. Identified as the victim of a Jesuit hit-man, Godfrey became overnight a Protestant martyr and cult figure.

Monarchical government in the later 17th century was a political fact of life and remains central to an understanding of the period. The subject of this book is the court of the later Stuart kings in the period 1660-1702. Its purpose is to provide an introduction to some of the emergent themes of court politics, culture and society. Marshall achieves this by analyzing the ritual side of court government in its structural, political and cultural guises.