This book offers the first major reassessment of the life and work of Sir Henry Bennet, earl of Arlington, for over a century. Authored by a series of experts in the field, it not only shines a light on his career, but also on Charles II's reign as a whole, on the Cavalier court, and on Restoration politics.

Robin Eagles is Editor of the House of Lords (1660-1832) section at the History of Parliament. His previous publications include Francophilia in English Society 1748-1815 (2000) and an edition of the Diaries of John Wilkes 1770-1797 (2014).

Coleman A. Dennehy is a former IRC Marie Sk¿odowska-Curie fellow at UCD and UCL. Having formerly taught at Vienna, he is currently at the Humanities Institute (UCD) and has recently published Parliament in Ireland, 1613-89, Restoration Ireland, Law and Revolution in Seventeenth-Century Ireland, and several articles and chapters.

1. Introduction: Henry Bennet, Earl of Arlington, and his World: Court, Politics and Diplomacy in the Restoration 2. 'The Inkhorn Lord'?: Locating Arlington's Connections 3. Pretending to Be Catholic?: Sir Henry Bennet, the Alliance with Spain and Stuart Dalliance with Rome, 1656-62 4. The Earl of Arlington and Restoration Ireland 5. Catholicism and Anti-Catholicism in Arlington's World: Polemic, Persuasion and the Conversion of Anne Hyde, Duchess of York 6. 'Faisons meieux': Henry Bennet, Earl of Arlington and His Political Tactics 7. Arlington and Access 8. 'So That my Estate May Continue in the Name and Blood of the Bennets for Ever': The Bennet Brothers and the Perpetuation of the Bennet Family 9. Naturally Born Courtiers: The FitzRoy Dukes of Grafton, 1685-1757