Ironed Corpses Clattering in the Wind 
Mark Kishlansky
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In the 1660s, repression gave way to liberation. Samuel Pepys took great pleasure from his debauching of the progeny of such well-known Puritans as ‘Penny’ Penington, whose grandfather Isaac had been the Presbyterian alderman and mayor of London. The Duke of Monmouth had an illegitimate child with Elizabeth Waller, the daughter of the Parliamentarian general, Sir William. The experiments of the 1650s were swept away as king, lords and bishops were thrust back into power with hardly a shot fired. The armies of the Commonwealth melted away, its tortured succession of governments abruptly ended and its chaotic Church dissipated. The people lined the streets to cheer their monarch, who arrived in London on his 30th birthday.
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From the LRB letters page: [ 7 September 2006 ] Ivan Roots.
Mark Kishlansky, who teaches at Harvard, is the author, with David Cannadine, of Monarchy Transformed: Britain 1603-1714. He is working on a study of the reign of Charles I.
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