Readers' Guide Questions for Royal Harlot: A Novel of the Countess of Castlemaine & King Charles II

A Novel of Restoration England by Susan Holloway Scott
Coming in July, 2007 from New American Library

  1. By telling Barbara’s story, the author also tells the story of Charles II’s return to the throne.  How would this story have been different if Charles has been the narrator?
  2. Lord Clarendon, Barbara’s enemy at Court, called her a “woman of appetites.”  What do you think he meant by that? 
  3. Though the future of the English succession depended on Charles fathering a male heir, he refused to “put aside” his barren wife Catherine of Braganza in favor of a more fertile queen, much as his ancestor Henry VIII repeatedly did.  Why do you think he refused?
  4. The rootless generation of young royalists who came of age between the 1650s and 1670s were in many ways similar to the post-World War I generation that fueled the excesses and social changes of the 1920s.  How are they alike?  How are they different?
  5. Do you think Barbara would have played a role in the politics of the Restoration Court if she’d been born a Villiers man, like her cousin the Duke of Buckingham, instead of a woman?
  6. One of the criticisms leveled at Barbara by her enemies was that she was an “unnatural” mother.  What do you think was meant by this? 
  7. At the French Court, the King’s Mistress was an accepted, official post –– the “titled mistress” –– yet in England, Charles encountered great resistance and outrage to the amount of favoritism he showed toward Barbara and his other mistresses.  Why do you think this was?  Why would the two cultures of the French and English Courts been so different?
  8. Barbara was always conscious of her appearance, saying “I was my beauty, and when my share of it would finally drain away, I’d no notion of what else would be left.” (p. 592) How did she use her beauty?
  9. If Barbara had been married to Charles instead of Roger Palmer, do you think she would have been a more faithful wife?
  10. Seventeenth century England was largely an Anglican nation, with only about twenty percent of the population worshiping as Roman Catholics.  Yet because a much higher percentage of the noble families at Court were Catholic, anti-Catholic hysteria was a real factor of the times.  Do you think these fears were reasonable?
  11. The promiscuous gentlemen of Charles’s Court were called libertines, while the equally promiscuous Barbara was called a whore.  Discuss this double standard.
  12. Throughout history, Barbara has been regarded as an evil, immoral woman who purposefully set out to bewitch the King for her own gain.  How much of her immorality was a product of her times, and how much do you think was a part of her character?
  13. The artist Sir Peter Lely painted numerous portraits of Barbara, regarding her as not only his muse, but the most perfect representation of feminine beauty.  It also made good business sense for him to be so closely linked to the King’s favorite.  In an era before photography and television, how could painted portraits like those of Barbara influence public opinion?