There have been comparatively few biographies of Charles II, and Lady Antonia makes up for the lack [in Royal Charles: Charles II and the Restoration]. She is refreshingly unpretentious, as when she explains why she will keep her notes to a minimum: experts on the period already know the sources, and the general reader will not be interested. She makes no claim to have gone beyond the printed sources and secondary works—a huge bibliography in any case, including such splendid material as the diaries of Samuel Pepys and John Evelyn. She has worked hard and thoroughly—in some senses almost too much so, in that she seems determined to tell us all she knows about Charles II.

In her evenhanded progress through his 55 years, there might have been somewhat more differentiation and selectivity. An old-fashioned biographer with a modern sensibility, she does not hesitate to linger over...