The combination of these events triggered a rebellion by England’s richest Protestant landowners, who a) expelled James b) invited Prince William of Orange (a state in the Low Countries) – who had a sort of legitimacy because he was married to James’s (solidly Protestant) daughter, Mary – to come and rule Britain in his place.

coincided with James’s foolish decision to prosecute seven Anglican bishops for seditious libel.

James’s Catholic wife, Mary of Modena, giving birth to a son, who everyone knew was set to be raised a Catholic, with the threat that Britain would become a Catholic country.

Monmouth’s rebellion was successfully defeated, but three years later: ‘Behn was a lifelong and militant royalist, and her fictions are quite consistent in portraying virtuous royalists and put-upon nobles who are opposed by petty and evil republicans/Parliamentarians.’ (Wikipedia)Ĭharles II died in 1685 (in Oroonoko he is referred to as ‘his late Majesty, of sacred Memory’) and was succeeded by his brother James II, triggering an uprising by Charles’s illegitimate son, the Duke of Monmouth, in the Protestant cause. Back in London she was part of the set of rakish poets and playwrights which included John Wilmot Earl of Rochester, to whom she dedicated a poem. They all agree that she welcomed the return of the Stuart dynasty, was popular with Charles II, and even did some spying for him abroad (on a journey to Antwerp). There are at least four biographies of Behn, plus numerous introductions to her work. She lived through troubled times – growing up during the civil wars (1637 – 53) she was 9 or so when King Charles was executed in January 1649, lived through the Commonwealth of Oliver Cromwell and was 20 or so when Charles II was restored. She was a widely published poet, translator, essayist and writer of prose fictions. She was a very successful playwright, producing at least 15 plays, mostly Restoration comedies. for it was she who earned them the right to speak their minds.Aphra Behn (1640 – 1689) is generally considered the first known professional female writer in England. Behn's work paved the way for women writers who came after her, as Virginia Woolf noted in a Room of One's Own (1928): 'All women together ought to let flowers fall upon the tomb of Aphra Behn. The work was an instant success and was adapted for the stage in 1695 (and more recently by the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1999).

Perhaps based partly on Behn's own experiences living in Surinam, the novel tells the tragic story of a noble slave, Oroonoko, and his love Imoinda. Download cover art Download CD case insert Oroonoko, or The Royal SlaveĪphra Behn was the first woman writer in England to make a living by her pen, and her novel Oroonoko was the first work published in English to express sympathy for African slaves.

Oroonoko online