To the last syllable of recorded fact
Richard 01lard
CHARLES THE SECOND KING OF ENGLAND, SCOTLAND AND IRELAND by Ronald Hutton Clarendon Press, £19.50, pp.568 Brevity, we are told, is the soul of wit. The best study of Charles II, that by his minister the Marquis of Halifax, is approp- riately brief for one who has been generally thought the wittiest of English monarchs. Dr Hutton throws cold water on this reputation. Charles was only, in his consi- dered judgment at the end of this long and, in his own words, 'densely researched' book, 'fairly intelligent'. Most of the bon mots with which the King is credited, he points out, cannot be documented from contemporary sources. But does this dis- pose of the matter? Even in our day, when so much is recorded, it would be difficult to document the witticisms ascribed to, say, Sir Winston Churchill or Sir Maurice Bow- ra, although both men, unlike Charles II who hated writing, were themselves accomplished men of letters. Why did so many people in his own time and since attribute this quality to him in so marked a degree? And if he was only 'fairly intelli- gent' it seems strange that so many of those who had a great deal to do with him
formed so much higher an opinion of his abilities.
Documentation is Dr Hutton's long suit. His cyclonic energy as a researcher was strikingly demonstrated in his last book, The Restoration: A Political and Religious History of England and Wales 1658-1667. Record offices up and down the country were ransacked, the great public collec- tions worked through, PhD theses and learned articles devoured. The same indus- try has been applied here over an even wider field. To England and Wales have. been added Scotland and Ireland, a rare feat for an English historian, and the period has been extended in both direct- ions since Charles was born in 1630 and died in 1685. Even Dr Hutton stands, justifiably, somewhat amazed at his own exertions.
These were not without their penalties. The writing of the book, he tells us, took place in the interstices of a formidable programme. The chapters were
produced with pen and paper, in a multiplic- ity of odd situations, including trains, ferries, planes, airports, stations, hotels, parks, and the homes of friends. The liabilities of this method for style and overall coherence may or may not he obvious in the result.
Further light on the book's composition is thrown by a note on Chapter 8: During this chapter in particular, and also in those before and after, I have not only used this previous book of mine [The Restoration] as a sole reference but have taken passages from it for interpolation into the text.
The author, in short, would sooner satisfy the examiners than sacrifice to the Muses. But is the antithesis necessary? To reflect, to stand back, to discard as well as to quarry are surely essential functions of the historian. They certainly are to the construction of a readable book. The grim determination to bring in everything, cost what it may in lack of focus, leads to a dismaying succession of pages in which a paragraph beginning 'Meanwhile trouble was brewing in Ireland' is followed by one that opens 'At the same time the strife between the King's Scottish ministers was growing more bitter.' This is l'histoire evenernentielle with a vengeance. Perspec- tive, shape, texture, pace are left to take their chance.
This is a pity because the author shows from time to time what he could do if he would. ,His description of the palace of Whitehall in 1660, the passages, especially valuable, on the Secret Treaty of Dover, the glimpse of the King attending the Lord's debate on the Exclusion Bill are all in their different ways vivid, interesting and acute. But for much of the time he is too preoccupied with the sheer mass of his materials to bother about the writing. Dull stretches have to be pepped up with crude language. Ministers 'panic'. 'Fury' and `furious' appear with deadening frequency. Charles II. it sometimes seems, hardly knew any other reaction. And not only Charles. Everyone from Archbishop San- croft to Nell Gwynn is furious — Nell Gwynn twice in successive paragraphs.
Dr Hutton's view of Charles is substan- tially that of David Ogg and J. P. Kenyon as opposed to the warmer tones of Sir Arthur Bryant and Lady Antonia Fraser. He thinks, as has been said, less of his abilities and perhaps rather more of his pertinacity. In one respect he is singular. True to his documentary fundamentalism he will not allow himself to believe that Charles had any sexual experience until his only too well documented encounter with Lucy Walter. His earlier affair with the famous beauty, Christabel Wyndham, who had attended him as a child, seandalised Clarendon and, according to him, alarmed Charles I. Dr Hutton describes her — one can surely see that sardonic phiz crease into a grin — as 'his old Nanny'. But Clarendon, King Charles's Chancellor, is Dr Hutton's King Charles's Head. Genial to all other historians, he can hardly mention Clarendon without a most un- documentary venom. He wrote his history `to vindicate himself. . . at the expense of truth,' he was avaricious and ruthless', 'he had an ingrained contempt for most fore- igners'. This has the knock-on effect of inducing Dr Hutton to go out of his way to reverse Clarendon's estimates of people, even when there is strong contemporary support for them from authorities such as Pepys and Evelyn. Jermyn becomes a high-minded patriot, Jack Berkeley a bland and easy colleague. One is reminded of Charles Il's reported remark about the learned sceptic Isaac Vossius, whom he presented to a canonry at Windsor, that Dr Vossius would believe any marvel provided that it was not vouched for in the Bible.
Finally it seems a shame that a book into which the author has put so much work should have such a scurvy index. Only the monarch himself is allowed anything better than a daunting list of undifferentiated digits. And the multiple citation of refer- ences (placed at the end of the book, not on the page) to a single footnote indicator is unworthy of the press that bears Clarendon's name.
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