The Restoration was a decade of experimentation: from the founding of the Royal Society for investigating the sciences to the startling role of credit and risk; from the shocking licentiousness of the court to failed attempts at religious tolerance. Negotiating all these, Charles II, the "slippery sovereign," laid odds and took chances, dissembling and manipulating his followers. The theaters may have been restored, but the king himself was the supreme...

The Great Fire of London raged for four days in 1666, making over 70,000 of the city's 80,000 inhabitants homeless. From King Charles II and Samuel Pepys to Thomas Farriner, the King's baker, in whose premises the fire began, witness the chaos of a city imploding, and the fear and rumors of treachery that took hold.

In 17th century Britain, a young man seduced by the wealth and indolence of the Restoration court finds redemption of sorts through the love of a woman.