title: The Pleasures of Love // The Merry Monarch's Wife
author: Plaidy, Jean
description: SHE WAS READY TO ENDURE ALL  --  FOR THE PLEASURES OF LOVE
  
  Newly married to King Charles II, Catherine of Braganza has left her sheltered upbringing in Portugal to become part of the notoriously licentious English court. She soon falls deeply in love with her charming, witty husband - but brought abruptly face to face with the true state of affairs at court she becomes overwhelmed by despair.
  
  Catherine finds enemies are everywhere: rivals for the King's affection such as Barbara, Lady Castlemaine, beautiful, simple-minded Frances Stuart and merry Nell Gwynne - and more deadly adversaries, like the venomous Titus Oates, determined to destroy her. Despite all this, and despite Charles's humiliating neglect, Catherine's love prevails through disillusion and despair - to triumph in the end.