Title search results
Showing 41 - 60 of 1273 items
George IV: King in Waiting (Penguin Monarchs)
By Stella Tillyard. 2019
George IV spent most of his life waiting to become king: as a pleasure-loving and rebellious Prince of Wales during…
the sixty-year reign of his father, George III, and for ten years as Prince Regent, when his father went mad. 'The days are very long when you have nothing to do' he once wrote plaintively, but he did his best to fill them with pleasure - women, art, food, wine, fashion, architecture. He presided over the creation of the Regency style, which came to epitomise the era, and he was, with Charles I, the most artistically literate of all our kings. Yet despite his life of luxury and indulgence, George died alone and unmourned. Stella Tillyard has not written a judgemental book, but a very human and enjoyable one, about this most colourful of all British kings.George III: Madness and Majesty (Penguin Monarchs)
By Jeremy Black. 2006
King of Britain for sixty years and the last king of what would become the United States, George III inspired…
both hatred and loyalty and is now best known for two reasons: as a villainous tyrant for America's Founding Fathers, and for his madness, both of which have been portrayed on stage and screen.In this concise and penetrating biography, Jeremy Black turns away from the image-making and back to the archives, and instead locates George's life within his age: as a king who faced the loss of key colonies, rebellion in Ireland, insurrection in London, constitutional crisis in Britain and an existential threat from Revolutionary France as part of modern Britain's longest period of war.Black shows how George III rose to these challenges with fortitude and helped settle parliamentary monarchy as an effective governmental system, eventually becoming the most popular monarch for well over a century. He also shows us a talented and curious individual, committed to music, art, architecture and science, who took the duties of monarchy seriously, from reviewing death penalties to trying to control his often wayward children even as his own mental health failed, and became Britain's longest reigning king.George II: Not Just a British Monarch (Penguin Monarchs)
By Norman Davies. 2021
From the celebrated historian and author of Europe: A History, a new life of George IIGeorge II, King of Great…
Britain and Ireland and Elector of Hanover, came to Britain for the first time when he was thirty-one. He had a terrible relationship with his father, George I, which was later paralleled by his relationship to his own son. He was short-tempered and uncultivated, but in his twenty-three-year reign he presided over a great flourishing in his adoptive country - economic, military and cultural - all described with characteristic wit and elegance by Norman Davies. (George II so admired the Hallelujah chorus in Handel's Messiah that he stood while it was being performed - as modern audiences still do.) Much of his attention remained in Hanover and on continental politics, as a result of which he was the last British monarch to lead his troops into battle, at Dettingen in 1744.George I: The Lucky King (Penguin Monarchs)
By Tim Blanning. 2016
George I was not the most charismatic of the Hanoverian monarchs to have reigned in England but he was probably…
the most important. He was certainly the luckiest.Born the youngest son of a landless German duke, he was taken by repeated strokes of good fortune to become, first the ruler of a major state in the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation and then the sovereign of three kingdoms (England, Ireland and Scotland). Tim Blanning's incisive short biography examines George's life and career as a German prince, and as King. Fifty-four years old when he arrived in London in 1714, he was a battle-hardened veteran, who put his long experience and deep knowledge of international affairs to good use in promoting the interests of both Hanover and Great Britain. When he died, his legacy was order and prosperity at home and power and prestige abroad. Disagreeable he may have been to many, but he was also tough, determined and effective, at a time when other European thrones had started to crumble.Elizabeth II: The Steadfast (Penguin Monarchs)
By Douglas Hurd. 2835
In September 2015 Queen Elizabeth II becomes Britain's longest-reigning monarch. During her long lifetime Britain and the world have changed…
beyond recognition, yet throughout she has stood steadfast as a lasting emblem of stability, continuity and public service.Historian and senior politician Douglas Hurd has seen the Queen at close quarters, as Home Secretary and then on overseas expeditions as Foreign Secretary. Here he considers the life and role of Britain's most greatly admired monarch, who, inheriting a deep sense of duty from her father George VI, has weathered national and family crises, seen the end of an Empire and heard voices raised in favour of the break-up of the United Kingdom.Hurd creates an arresting portrait of a woman deeply conservative by nature yet possessing a ready acceptance of modern life and the awareness that, for things to stay the same, they must change.With a preface by HRH Prince William, Duke of CambridgeElizabeth I: A Study in Insecurity (Penguin Monarchs)
By Helen Castor. 2017
'The experience of insecurity, it turned out, would shape one of the most remarkable monarchs in England's history' In the…
popular imagination, as in her portraits, Elizabeth I is the image of monarchical power. But this image is as much armour as a reflection of the truth. In this illuminating account of England's iconic queen, Helen Castor reveals her reign as shaped by a profound and enduring insecurity that was a matter of both practical politics and personal psychology.Elizabeth: An intimate portrait from the writer who knew her and her family for over fifty years
By Gyles Brandreth. 2022
THE NO 1 SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER NOW FEATURING EXCLUSIVE MATERIAL ABOUT CHARLES III's CORONATION WITH ADDED PHOTOGRAPHSA personal account of…
the life and character of Britain's longest-reigning monarch, from the writer who knew her family best'Compelling . . . Fascinating' DAILY MAIL'The writer who got closest to the human truth about our long-serving senior royals' THE TIMES'The book overflows with nuggets of insider knowledge' TELEGRAPHPaints a unique picture of the remarkable woman who reigned for seven decades. Fascinating insights' HELLO!__________Gyles Brandreth first met the Queen in 1968, when he was twenty.Over the next fifty years he met her many times, both at public and at private events. Through his friendship with the Duke of Edinburgh, he was given privileged access to Elizabeth II.He kept a record of all those encounters, and his conversations with the Queen over the years, his meetings with her family and friends, and his observations of her at close quarters are what make this very personal account of her extraordinary life uniquely fascinating.From her childhood in the 1920s to the era of Harry and Meghan in the 2020s, from her war years at Windsor Castle to her death at Balmoral, this is both a record of a tumultuous century of royal history and a truly intimate portrait of a remarkable woman.Enjoy this special edition now featuring an exclusive postscript about King Charles III's Coronation with photographs.__________Praise for Gyles Brandreth's bestselling royal writing:'Beautifully written book. I have read many other books about Philip but this is the best' DAILY EXPRESS'Brilliant, totally inspiring . . . It's a joy to read a book that comes from a perspective of fondness' KIRSTIE ALLSOPP, THE TIMES'As a sparkling celebration of Prince Philip, the book will be hard to beat' TELEGRAPH'So readable and refreshing even after the millions of words that have been written about Prince Philip in the past couple of weeks' THE TIMES'Brilliant . . . There is so much in this book you won't find anywhere else' LORRAINEElizabeth: The Scandalous Life of an 18th Century Duchess
By Claire Gervat. 2003
Elizabeth Chudleigh was one of the eighteenth century's most colourful characters. Born into impoverished gentility, her beauty, wit and vitality…
soon earned her a place at the centre of court life. When she married the Duke of Kingston in 1769 she had reached the highest rung of the social ladder. But Elizabeth was carrying a dark secret. In 1744 she had secretly married a naval lieutenant called Augustus Hervey, and after the Duke's death her first marriage was discovered. Bigamy fever swept London society and, in a very public trial, Elizabeth was found guilty. But her strength of character ensured that, even when her friends deserted her, her courage and zest for life did not. In an engaging history of this strong and wilful woman, Gervat shows there was far more to Elizabeth than the caricature villain her contemporaries made her out to be.Edward VIII: The Uncrowned King (Penguin Monarchs)
By Piers Brendon. 2016
'After my death,' George V said of his eldest son and heir, 'the boy will ruin himself within twelve months.'The…
forecast proved uncannily accurate. Edward VIII came to the throne in January 1936, provoked a constitutional crisis by his determination to marry the American divorcée Wallis Simpson, and abdicated in December. He was never crowned king.In choosing the woman he loved over his royal birthright, Edward shook the monarchy to its foundations. Given the new title 'Duke of Windsor' and essentially sent into exile, he remained a visible skeleton in the royal cupboard until his death in 1972 and he haunts the house of Windsor to this day.Drawing on unpublished material, notably correspondence with his most loyal (though much tried) supporter Winston Churchill, Piers Brendon's superb biography traces Edward's tumultuous public and private life from bright young prince to troubled sovereign, from wartime colonial governor to sad but glittering expatriate. With pace and panache, it cuts through the myths that still surround this most controversial of modern British monarchs.Edward VII: The Cosmopolitan King (Penguin Monarchs)
By Richard Davenport-Hines. 2015
Like his mother Queen Victoria, Edward VII defined an era. Both reflected the personalties of their central figures: hers grand,…
imperial and pretty stiff; his no less grand, but much more relaxed and enjoyable. This book conveys Edward's distinct personality and significant influences. To the despair of his parents, he rebelled as a young man, conducting many affairs and living a life of pleasure. But as king he made a distinct contribution to European diplomacy and - which is little known - to London, laying out the Mall and Admiralty Arch. Richard Davenport-Hines's book is as enjoyable as its subject and the age he made.Edward VI: The Last Boy King (Penguin Monarchs)
By Stephen Alford. 2014
Edward VI, the only son of Henry VIII, became king at the age of nine and died wholly unexpectedly at…
the age of fifteen. All around him loomed powerful men who hoped to use the child to further their own ends, but who were also playing a long game - assuming that Edward would long outlive them and become as commanding a figure as his father had been. Stephen Alford's wonderful book gives full play to the murky, sinister nature of Edward's reign, but is also a poignant account of a boy learning to rule, learning to enjoy his growing power and to come out of the shadows of the great aristocrats around him. England's last child monarch, Edward would have led his country in a quite different direction to the catastrophic one caused by his death.Edward the Confessor: The Sainted King (Penguin Monarchs)
By David Woodman. 2020
Edward the Confessor, the last great king of Anglo-Saxon England, canonized nearly 100 years after his death, is in part…
a figure of myths created in the late middle ages.In this revealing portrait of England's royal saint, David Woodman traces the course of Edward's twenty-four-year-long reign through the lens of contemporary sources, from the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle and the Vita Ædwardi Regis to the Bayeux Tapestry, to separate myth from history and uncover the complex politics of his life. He shows Edward to be a shrewd politician who, having endured a long period of exile from England in his youth, ascended the throne in 1042 and came to control a highly sophisticated and powerful administration.The twists and turns of Edward's reign are generally seen as a prelude to the Norman Conquest in 1066. Woodman explains clearly how events unfolded and personalities interacted but, unlike many, he shows a capable and impressive king at the centre of them.Edward IV: The Summer King (Penguin Monarchs)
By A J Pollard. 2016
In 1461 Edward earl of March, an able, handsome, and charming eighteen-year old, usurped the English throne from his feeble…
Lancastrian predecessor Henry VI. Ten years on, following outbreaks of civil conflict that culminated in him losing, then regaining the crown, he had finally secured his kingdom. The years that followed witnessed a period of rule that has been described as a golden age: a time of peace and economic and industrial expansion, which saw the establishment of a style of monarchy that the Tudors would later develop. Yet, argues A. J. Pollard, Edward, who was drawn to a life of sexual and epicurean excess, was a man of limited vision, his reign remaining to the very end the narrow rule of a victorious faction in civil war. Ultimately, his failure was dynastic: barely two months after his death in April 1483, the throne was usurped by Edward's youngest brother, Richard III.Edward III: A Heroic Failure (Penguin Monarchs)
By Jonathan Sumption. 2016
Edward III lived through bloody and turbulent times. His father was deposed by his mother and her lover when he…
was still a teenager; a third of England's population was killed by the Black Death midway through his reign; and the intractable Hundred Years War with France began under his leadership. Yet Edward managed to rule England for fifty years, and was viewed as a paragon of kingship in the eyes of both his contemporaries and later generations. Venerated as the victor of Sluys and Crécy and the founder of the Order of the Garter, he was regarded with awe even by his enemies. But he lived too long, and was ultimately condemned to see thirty years of conquests reversed in less than five. In this gripping new account of Edward III's rise and fall, Jonathan Sumption introduces us to a fêted king who ended his life a heroic failure.Edward II: The Terrors of Kingship (Penguin Monarchs)
By Christopher Given-Wilson. 2662
'He seems to have laboured under an almost child-like misapprehension about the size of his world. Had greatness not been…
thrust upon him, he might have lived a life of great harmlessness.'The reign of Edward II was a succession of disasters. Unkingly, inept in war, and in thrall to favourites, he preferred digging ditches and rowing boats to the tedium of government. His infatuation with a young Gascon nobleman, Piers Gaveston, alienated even the most natural supporters of the crown. Hoping to lay the ghost of his soldierly father, Edward I, he invaded Scotland and suffered catastrophic defeat at the Battle of Bannockburn. After twenty ruinous years, betrayed and abandoned by most of his nobles and by his wife and her lover, Edward was imprisoned in Berkeley Castle and murdered - the first English king since the Norman Conquest to be deposed.Edward I: A New King Arthur? (Penguin Monarchs)
By Andy King. 2016
The acclaimed Penguin Monarchs series: short, fresh, expert accounts of England's rulers - now in paperbackEdward I (1272-1307) is one…
of the most commanding of all English rulers. He fought in southwest France, in Wales, In Scotland and in northern France, he ruled with ruthlessness and confidence, undoing the chaotic failure of his father, Henry III's reign. He reshaped England's legal system and came close to bringing the whole island of Great Britain under his rule. He promoted the idea of himself as the new King Arthur, his Round Table still hanging in Winchester Castle to this day. His greatest monuments are the extraordinary castles - Caernarfon, Beaumaris, Harlech and Conwy - built to ensure his rule of Wales and some of the largest of all medieval buildings.Andy King's brilliant short biography brings to life a strange, complex man whose triumphs raise all kinds of questions about the nature of kingship - how could someone who established so many key elements in England's unique legal and parliamentary system also have been such a harsh, militarily brutal warrior?Dirty Bertie: An English King Made in France
By Stephen Clarke. 2014
The entertaining biography of Edward VII and his playboy lifestyle, by Stephen Clarke, author of 1000 Years of Annoying the…
French and A Year in the Merde.Despite fierce opposition from his mother, Queen Victoria, Edward VII was always passionately in love with France.He had affairs with the most famous Parisian actresses, courtesans and can-can dancers. He spoke French more elegantly than English. He was the first ever guest to climb the Eiffel Tower with Gustave Eiffel, in defiance of an official English ban on his visit. He turned his French seduction skills into the diplomatic prowess that sealed the Entente Cordiale.A quintessentially English king? Pas du tout! Stephen Clarke argues that as 'Dirty Bertie', Edward learned all the essentials in life from the French.Diana: The Last Days
By Martyn Gregory. 2007
Was Diana murdered? Was the British Royal family involved? Was she pregnant and engaged to Dodi? Did the paparazzi or…
'a blinding white flash' cause the crash? Was driver Henri Paul really drunk or were his blood tests switched?Since Princess Diana died in Paris on 31 August 1997 there have been more questions than answers about the crash that killed her, despite lengthy official French and British investigations.This is the authoritative and up-to-date study into the death of Diana, Princess of Wales, which includes unique access to Diana's close friends and bodyguards, French and British detectives who probed the crash, and the official French investigation's dossier into the crash.The Cradle King: A Life of James VI & I
By Alan Stewart. 2003
As the son of Mary Queen of Scots, born into her 'bloody nest', James had the most precarious of childhoods.…
Even before his birth, his life was threatened: it was rumoured that his father, Henry, had tried to make the pregnant Mary miscarry by forcing her to witness the assassination of her supposed lover, David Riccio. By the time James was one year old, Henry was murdered, possibly with the connivance of Mary; Mary was in exile in England; and James was King of Scotland. By the age of five, he had experienced three different regents as the ancient dynasties of Scotland battled for power and made him a virtual prisoner in Stirling Castle. In fact, James did not set foot outside the confines of Stirling until he was eleven, when he took control of his country. But even with power in his hands, he would never feel safe. For the rest of his life, he would be caught up in bitter struggles between the warring political and religious factions who sought control over his mind and body. Yet James believed passionately in the divine right of kings, as many of his writings testify. He became a seasoned political operator, carefully avoiding controversy, even when his mother Mary was sent to the executioner by Elizabeth I. His caution and politicking won him the English throne on Elizabeth's death in 1603 and he rapidly set about trying to achieve his most ardent ambition: the Union of the two kingdoms. Alan Stewart's impeccably researched new biography makes brilliant use of original sources to bring to life the conversations and the controversies of the Jacobean age. From James's 'inadvised' relationships with a series of favourites and Gentlemen of the Bedchamber to his conflicts with a Parliament which refused to fit its legislation to the Monarch's will, Stewart lucidly untangles the intricacies of James's life. In doing so, he uncovers the extent to which Charles I's downfall was caused by the cracks that appeared in the monarchy during his father's reign.Cnut: The North Sea King (Penguin Monarchs)
By Ryan Lavelle. 2017
'A reputation as a ruthless ruler was sealed that would last beyond his lifetime. In that respect, at least, Cnut…
had succeeded...'Cnut, or Canute, is one of the great 'what ifs' of English history. The Dane who became King of England after a long period of Viking attacks and settlement, his reign could have permanently shifted eleventh-century England's rule to Scandinavia. Stretching his authority across the North Sea to become king of Denmark and Norway, and with close links to Ireland and an overlordship of Scotland, this formidable figure created a Viking Empire at least as plausible as the Anglo-Norman Empire that would emerge in 1066. Ryan Lavelle's illuminating book cuts through myths and misconceptions to explore this fascinating and powerful man in detail. Cnut is most popularly known now for the story of the king who tried to command the waves, relegated to a bit part in the medieval story, but as this biography shows, he was a conqueror, political player, law maker and empire builder on the grandest scale, one whose reign tells us much about the contingent nature of history.