Henry Masterton; or, the Adventures of a Young Cavalier

by G. P. R. James

First published 1832

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2.5(2)

Set across the mid-seventeenth century, Henry Masterton follows a young Cavalier through the upheaval of the English Civil War and into the political disorder of France during the Fronde. James uses the movement between two countries to show how military defeat, exile and shifting political fortune could uproot individuals who had tied their futures to a royal cause. Duels, travel, imprisonment and romance develop against a background in which allegiance remains dangerous even after a particular campaign has ended.

The English conflict and the Fronde were very different civil wars, but both exposed the limits of established authority. In England the monarchy fought Parliament for control of the state; in France nobles, magistrates and royal ministers struggled during the minority of Louis XIV. Masterton’s adventures connect those crises through the experience of a man repeatedly forced to rebuild his place in societies transformed by conflict.