ABSTRACT
In many ways the Restoration was remarkably bloodless. Charles II was brought back by his own people, rather than by force of arms. Although there were official reprisals against his father’s enemies, few were executed. And although there was some local paying off of scores, it was far from amounting to a ‘white terror’. If the Restoration settlement left a legacy of bitterness, this was not because Parliamentarians thought it had been too severe but because Royalists thought it had not been severe enough. This chapter will examine the settlement and will try to explain why Charles failed to satisfy ‘his own party’. 1 The aim is not to give a comprehensive account of the politics of the period, which can be found elsewhere, 2 but rather to examine those aspects which created political divisions.
