Richard CustCritiques

This is an excellent study of the relationship of Charles I with his nobility. It is deeply specialised. I fear it would be difficult for the casual historian to get through without a firm understanding of Charles and his reign.

One of the primary points that Cust drives home is that Charles made a much better organiser and leader of an aristocratic royalist party than a monarch. It is convincingly shown that Charles managed to bring the honours system back under control and could curtail the inflation of honours as well as rebuild a due respect for the nobility. In return, the brought large segments of the politically active nobility to support the King up to the outbreak of the Civil War in 1642.