This book reconstructs in unprecedented detail the physical character of the court of Charles I (1600-1649). Drawing on inventories compiled in the months following Charles's execution, authorities in their fields assess the character and importance of Charles's possessions, including his incomparable paintings, the royal regalia, furnishings, gems and plates from the Jewel House, and pots and pans from the court kitchens.

Set against the backdrop of war, revolution, and regicide, and moving from London to Venice, Mantua, Madrid, Paris and the Low Countries, Jerry Brotton’s colourful and critically acclaimed book explores the formation and dispersal of King Charles I’s art collection. Following a remarkable and unprecedented Parliamentary Act for ‘The sale of the late king’s goods’, Cromwell’s republican regime sold off nearly 2,000 paintings, tapestries, statues and drawings in an attempt to settle the dead king’s enormous debts and raise money for the Commonwealth’s military forces. Brotton recreates the extraordinary circumstances of this sale, in which for the first time ordinary working people were able to handle and own works by the great masters. He also examines the abiding relationship between art and power, revealing how the current Royal Collection emerged from this turbulent period, and paints its own vivid and dramatic picture of one of the greatest lost collections in English history. 'A rip-roaring slice of seventeenth-century England...Readable history at its best' Kate Mosse, author of Labyrinth

The reconstitution of the royal court in 1660 brought with it the restoration of fears that had been associated with earlier Stuart courts: disorder, sexual liberty, popery and arbitrary government. This volume illustrates the ways in which court culture was informed by the heady politics of Britain between 1660 and 1685.

The Letterbooks of John Evelyn, a collection of more than eight hundred letters selected by Evelyn himself, constitutes an essential new resource for scholars of seventeenth-century England.