Mary Wampler, Tiffany Vergon, Charles Aldarondo, Charles Franks and the
Online Distributed Proofreading Team.
The author of this series has made it his special object to confinehimself very strictly, even in the most minute details which he records,to historic truth. The narratives are not tales founded upon history,but history itself, without any embellishment or any deviations fromthe strict truth, so far as it can now be discovered by an attentiveexamination of the annals written at the time when the events themselvesoccurred. In writing the narratives, the author has endeavored to availhimself of the best sources of information which this country affords;and though, of course, there must be in these volumes, as in allhistorical accounts, more or less of imperfection and error, there isno intentional embellishment. Nothing is stated, not even the mostminute and apparently imaginary details, without what was deemed goodhistorical authority. The readers, therefore, may rely upon the recordas the truth, and nothing but the truth, so far as an honest purposeand a careful examination have been effectual in ascertaining it.
King Charles the Second was the son and successor of King Charles theFirst. These two are the only kings of the name of Charles that haveappeared, thus far, in the line of English sovereigns. Nor is it veryprobable that there will soon be another. The reigns of both thesemonarchs were stained and tarnished with many vices and crimes, anddarkened by national disasters of every kind, and the name is thusconnected with so many painful associations in the minds of men, thatit seems to have been dropped, by common consent, in all branches ofthe royal family.
The reign of Charles the First, as will be seen by the history of hislife in this series, was characterized by a long and obstinate contestbetween the king and the people, which brought on, at last, a civilwar, in which the king was defeated and taken prisoner, and in the endbeheaded on a block, before one of his own palaces. During the laststages of this terrible contest, and before Charles way himself takenprisoner, he was, as it were, a fugitive and an outlaw in his owndominions. His wife and family were scattered in various foreign lands,his cities and castles were in the hands of his enemies, and his oldestson, the prince Charles, was the object of special hostility. Theprince incurred, therefore, a great many dangers, and suffered manyheavy calamities in his early years. He lived to see these calamitiespass away, and, after they were gone, he enjoyed, so far as his ownpersonal safety and welfare were concerned, a tranquil and prosperouslife. The storm, however, of trial and suffering which envel