Charles I: An Abbreviated Life cover art

Charles I: An Abbreviated Life

Penguin Monarchs, Book 4

Preview
LIMITED TIME OFFER

3 months free
Try for £0.00
£8.99/mo thereafter. Renews automatically. Terms apply. Offer ends 31 July 2025 at 23:59 GMT.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
Premium Plus auto-renews for £8.99/mo after 3 months. Cancel monthly.

Charles I: An Abbreviated Life

By: Mark Kishlansky
Narrated by: John Sackville
Try for £0.00

£8.99/mo after 3 months. Offer ends 31 July 2025 23:59 GMT. Cancel monthly.

Buy Now for £7.99

Buy Now for £7.99

Confirm Purchase
Pay using card ending in
By completing your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and authorise Audible to charge your designated card or any other card on file. Please see our Privacy Notice, Cookies Notice and Interest-based Ads Notice.
Cancel

About this listen

Penguin presents the audiobook edition of Charles I: An Abbreviated Life by Mark Kishlansky, read by John Sackville.

The tragedy of Charles I dominates one of the most strange and painful periods in British history as the whole island tore itself apart over a deadly, entangled series of religious and political disputes. In Mark Kishlansky's brilliant account it is never in doubt that Charles created his own catastrophe, but he was nonetheless opposed by men with far fewer scruples and less consistency who for often quite contradictory reasons conspired to destroy him. This is a remarkable portrait of one of the most talented, thoughtful, loyal, moral, artistically alert and yet, somehow, disastrous of all this country's rulers.

©2014 Mark Kishlansky (P)2018 Penguin Audio
17th Century Europe Great Britain Historical Military & War Modern Politics & Activism Royalty War Military

Listeners also enjoyed...

Henry VIII: The Quest for Fame cover art
Devil-Land cover art
Wild Swans cover art
Oliver Cromwell: A Life from Beginning to End cover art
The Making of Oliver Cromwell cover art
The War That Made the Roman Empire cover art
Killers of the King cover art
Legends of the Renaissance: The Lives and Legacies of Ferdinand & Isabella cover art
A Little History of the World cover art
The Silk Roads cover art
Henry VIII cover art
Otto von Bismarck: The Life and Legacy of the German Empire's First Chancellor cover art
The Birth of Classical Europe cover art
Oliver Cromwell cover art
Kings and Queens of England cover art
Germany cover art
All stars
Most relevant  
A really good summary and starting point for people who want to learn more about Charles I.

An excellent summary!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

This a part of the penguin monarchs series which consist of concise biographies of all the Kings and Queens of England from Athelstan in 939 right up to Elizabeth II in our present day.

This series often will use a historian who maybe is a specialist on one monarch and ask them to write on the predecessor of successor of said Monarch which I think is a good idea. The author of this work is clearly a revisionist when it comes to Charles I and as such makes for a refreshing change of emphasis when it comes to this most controversial of our kings.

Charles I the only King of England to be put on trial and publicly executed after losing a civil war which devasted not only England but Scotland and Ireland has traditionaly been seen as a man unfit to be King. And while the author does not go so far as to absolve Charles of the mistakes and terrible decisions which destroyed not only himself but the institution of Monarch, he does show that the parlimentary oppostion to the king was far from being blamless and without its own share of culpability in the descent into the war which was far more brutal than is often imagined.

A well written and narrated short biography of the king who could be so kind and decent in personal relationships and yet present such a cold and remote presence to his people that they could imagine him capable of anything and Charles gave them good reason to do so at times. A great intoduction to the life of a fascinating figure in our history

Brilliant from start to finish

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.