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Maybe "that thing with Cromwell and the restoration of the monarchy"
The Civil War, the Commonwealth and Protectorate and the Restoration (covering the 1640s to 1688, which is the Glorious Revolution).
Well, apart from the Borgias, all the stuff you've mentioned there is seventeenth century (I think Dangerous Liaisons may even have a C18 setting), which I don't think counts as Renaissance per se (though obviously the Restoration is a moveable feast depending on where you are in Europe).
Having said that, the seventeenth century is just as good (if not better) for high society and political intrigue as the Renaissance, and you might find it easier to find source material - there's Dumas as you say, for starters. Not a great deal of contemporary fiction (apart from Don Quixote) but you can find some historical stuff, and the later you go the more there is. There's also a bunch of popular history on the Restoration period at the moment - you might like High Life, Low Morals by Victor Stater, lots of dastardly deeds in that one. Jacobitism might also be fruitful, though it's a bit later still. You could look into James VI and I and his favourite, the Duke of Buckingham - that was scandalous.
Renaissance topics - the popes (Memoirs of a Gnostic Dwarf?) might be worth looking into, or there's the Medici family - though the Borgias are probably the most famous. Or Elizabeth and Essex? There's an accessible biography by Lytton Strachey whcih might be a starting point.
I'm basically burbling because you've given such a wide remit, sorry. If you could be a bit more specific I could probably be more helpful, this *is* about my period and I can probably point to some decent starting points for historical research for you (historical fiction is a bit more tricky - there is a thread on it somewhere if you dig around). If you can find it, you might have a look at Hugh Williamson's Who was the Man in the Iron Mask, and other historical mysteries - I think it's a bit cracked, but it's certainly entertaining... |
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