Week 29
As England entered the 1680's it faced a constitutional crisis as grave as that which had split the nation in the 1640's. King Charles II had no son or daughter to succeed him and therefore the only legitimate successor was the king's brother James, Duke of York. James had complicated such a succession by secretly converting to Roman Catholicism and thereby confronting the Parliament with the possibility of the first Roman Catholic monarch since Queen Mary I. Parliamentary leaders were unalterably opposed to this and for the next several years the issue would be argued in the series of "Exclusionary" bills all of which were vetoed by King Charles.
RECOMENDED READING:
Samuel Pepys Diary is one of the finest examples of private memoires to come down to us from the beginning of the Modern Age. Our enjoyment of the Diary will be augmented by our experience with other writers of private recollections such as Cicero, Abelard, Heloise, Alessandra degli Strozzi, Castiglione, Veronica Franco and others.
A Pepys Anthology,
Robert and Linnet Latham,
University of California Press; Revised ed. edition (May 18, 2000),
ISBN 0520221672