ABSTRACT
The reality, it need hardly be said, was more complicated and far more ambiguous. Crucially, although most of the 1641 legislation was confirmed at the Restoration, the deep political and religious divisions which brought about the Civil Wars and suppression of the monarchy remained unresolved, and in the euphoria of 1660, no attempt was made to deal constructively with the constitutional issues which had emerged over the previous half-century. To exacerbate matters, there was deep mutual distrust between those who had remained royalists during the Interregnum and those who had served the republican regime. Instead of the myth, the reign of Charles II can more accurately be seen as a period where existing wounds were bandaged over, and a capable and adroit monarch and his ministers succeeded in pre-empting further fundamental crisis. However, major problems were carried over to the next reign and the whirlwind was reaped a second time.
