Paul Lay, author of the much-praised Providence Lost, turns his penetrating gaze to an extraordinary period in our history: the one hundred days that preceded and followed the Restoration of King Charles II. With Cromwell dead, and his son and successor Richard ceding power to the Rump Parliament, the dying months of the Protectorate were fevered and desperate: General Monck marched an army south from Scotland to oppose the leaders of the Rump, whose diehards sought – unavailingly – to rally support for the ‘good old cause’, rekindle the civil war and prevent the return of the Stuarts. Paul Lay chronicles both the frantic political repositioning and byzantine machinations that took place in anticipation of the monarch’s return, and the outcomes – sometimes brutal, sometimes pragmatic – that unfolded in the aftermath of regime change from republic to restored monarchy. The Return of the King is a thrilling, freestanding account of a turning-point in our national story.