Includes bibliographical references (pages 447-453) and index.

"The chronicle of the first half of the seventeenth century is, in a very real sense, an account of the conflict between Charles Stuart and Oliver Cromwell and the beliefs that impelled them. King and subject were almost exact contemporaries (nineteen months separated their birth dates). Both were possessed of a deep sense of divine mission. Both were profoundly religious. Both were immovably stubborn. Their ideals set them upon a collision course which culminated in one of the most dramatic events in our history: the execution of a reigning sovereign on Tuesday 30 January, 1649." "The King and the Gentleman intriguingly parallels the lives of the foreign-born aesthete-prince and the down-to-earth representative of a struggling squirearchy. Its publication marks a double commemoration - the quatercentenary of Cromwell's birth and the three-hundred-and-fiftieth anniversary of Charles' death."--Jacket.