Royalty

Revolt and upheaval in medieval Britain by a brilliant new narrative historian, 'Summer of Blood' breaks new ground in its portrayal of the personalities and politics of the bloody days of June 1381. The Peasants' Revolt of 1381 is one of the...

Conditioned by a childhood surrounded by the rivalries of the Stewart family, and by eighteen years of enforced exile in England, James I was to prove a king very different from his elderly and conservative forerunners. This major study draws on a wide...

A fascinating new look at the artistic legacy of the Tudors, revealing the dynasty's influence on the arts in Renaissance England and beyond Ruling successively from 1485 through 1603, the five Tudor monarchs changed England indelibly, using the visual...

Elizabeth the Queen begins as the young Elizabeth ascends the throne in the wake of her sister Mary's disastrous reign - both a woman and a queen, Elizabeth's story is an extraordinary phenomenon in a patriarchal age.From Elizabeth's intriguing,...

'Stunning... Weir has brought those five queens to life like never before. I just raced through it - it has all the drama and suspense of a novel' Tracy BormanCrusading queens, queens in rebellion against their king, queen seductresses, learned queens,...

Uncover the true history behind the critically acclaimed FX/Hulu series "SHOGUN" in this epic biography of the man who unified Medieval Japan. For 700 years, Japan was ruled by military commanders who waged war against one another incessantly. Shogun...

*THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER*Tudor tells a family story like no other.The Tudors are a national obsession, undoubtedly British history's most notorious family. But beyond the well-worn headlines is a family still more extraordinary than the one we...

When Samuel Pepys (1633-1703) began writing in 1660 he was a young clerk living in London, struggling to pay his rent. Over the next nine years as he kept his journal, he rose to be a powerful naval administrator. He became eyewitness to some of the most...

In 1806, the Holy Roman Empire ceased to exist when Francis II became Emperor of Austria. 112 years later, the Habsburg empire collapsed after the First World War after surviving many tribulations. During the year of revolutions in 1848 the much-loved...

He is one of the most reviled English kings in history. He drove his kingdom to the brink of civil war a dozen times in less than twenty years. He allowed his male lovers to rule the kingdom. He led a great army to the most ignominious military defeat in...

The royal family is the original Coronation Street - a long-running soap opera with the occasional real coronation thrown in. Its members have become celebrities, like upmarket versions of film stars and footballers. But they have also become a byword...

'The best account in English of the early years of Elizabeth' Evening Standard A woman in a man's world, Queen Elizabeth I was to become England's most successful ruler. Confident in her destiny, intensely intelligent, passionately sexual yet (she said)...

Beatrice Mary Victoria Feodore, later Princess Henry of Battenberg, was the last-born - in 1866 - of Victoria and Albert's children, and she would outlive all of her siblings to die as recently as 1944. Her childhood coincided with her mother's extended...

'A wonderfully fresh, vivid and engaging portrait.' Jane Ridley, author of Bertie: A Life of Edward VII'Has much of the abundant charm of its author.' Spectator'The glory of this book is in the details.' The Times'Worsley's command of the material and...

A landmark biography of the charismatic king beloved of fourteenth-century England Edward III (1312-1377) was the most successful European ruler of his age. Reigning for over fifty years, he achieved spectacular military triumphs and overcame grave...

A landmark reinterpretation of the life of William the Conqueror-a pivotal figure in British and European history"[The] definitive biography of the man who forever changed England with his invasion of 1066."-Tony Barber, "Best books of 2016," Financial...

HIGHGROVE: A GARDEN CELEBRATED is a commemoration of the beautiful, mature gardens planned and planted by The Prince of Wales over thirty years ago. The gardens at Highgrove evoke intense emotion. In January, the dramatic light and early snowdrops of the...

Robert the Bruce had himself crowned King of Scots at Scone on a frozen March morning in 1306. After years of struggle, Scotland had been reduced to a vassal state by Edward I of England and its people lived in poverty. On the day he seized the crown...

Fascinating and authoritative of Britain's royal families from Henry VIII to Elizabeth I to Queen Victoria, by leading popular historian Alison Weir 'George III is alleged to have married secretly, on 17th April, 1759, a Quakeress called Hannah Lightfoot...

'If a house could gossip, this is the book that Hampton Court would whisper. An enjoyable and readable stroll through 500 years of Hampton Court history: royal residents, common visitors, thieves, invaders and ghosts' PHILIPPA GREGORY ...

Christmas in Tudor times was a period of feasting, revelry and merrymaking 'to drive the cold winter away'. A carnival atmosphere presided at court, with a twelve-day-long festival of entertainments, pageants, theatre productions and 'disguisings', when...

'One of the great love stories of history, in a league with Napoleon and Josephine, and Antony and Cleopatra ... Excellent, with dazzling mastery of detail and literary flair' EconomistIt was history's most successful political partnership - as sensual...

NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY JANET MASLIN, THE NEW YORK TIMES'Victoria the Queen, Julia Baird's exquisitely wrought and meticulously researched biography, brushes the dusty myth off this extraordinary monarch' The New York Times Book Review...

An updated edition of Ben Pimlott's classic biography of the Queen: 'There is no better biography of Elizabeth II.' PETER HENNESSY, Independent on Sunday 'A magisterial biography and the only one that seriously deals with her constitutional...

'We all know about Queen Victoria, Edward VIII and Queen Elizabeth II, but how much do we really know about other monarchs? Yes, we know William the Conqueror beat King Harold at the Battle of Hastings. We know George III was mad, but what else do we...

The incredible real life story of the world's first super spy'Full of stimulating detail... vivid glimpses of the world of Elizabethan espionage' GUARDIAN'Walsingham emerges from these pages as a hero of epic stature' DAILY TELEGRAPHFrancis Walsingham...

INSTANT INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER * NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * #1 SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER * ONE OF THE TOP 10 BEST-SELLING ROYAL BIOGRAPHIES OF ALL TIME When news of the budding romance between a beloved English...

INSTANT INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER * NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * #1 SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER * ONE OF THE TOP 10 BEST-SELLING ROYAL BIOGRAPHIES OF ALL TIME When news of the budding romance between a beloved English...

In a land where Kings still rule, I am a Princess. You must know me only as Sultana, for I cannot reveal my true name for fear that harm will come to me and my family for what I am about to tell you.Think of a Saudi Arabian princess and what do you see?...

In a land where Kings still rule, I am a Princess. You must know me only as Sultana, for I cannot reveal my true name for fear that harm will come to me and my family for what I am about to tell you.Think of a Saudi Arabian princess and what do you see?...

King John ruled England for seventeen and a half years, yet his entire reign is usually reduced to one image: of the villainous monarch outmanoeuvred by rebellious barons into agreeing to Magna Carta at Runnymede in 1215. Ever since, John has come to be...

'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...

Emma was one of England's most remarkable queens: a formidable woman who made her mark on a Europe beset by Vikings. By birth a Norman, she married and outlived two kings of England and witnessed the coronations of two of her sons: Harthcnut the Viking...

28 January 1457. England is in the grip of the Wars of the Roses. Inside the walls of Pembroke Castle a thirteen-year-old girl gives birth to a boy. The ordeal nearly kills them both, forging a powerful bond that will see mother and son work together to...

Behind the Throne is, above all, a history of family life.They ate, entertained their friends and worried about money. Henry VIII kept tripping over his dogs. George II threw his son out of the house. James I had to cut back on the drink bills.The great...

A powerful account of the life of Tamerlane the Great (1336-1405), the last master nomadic power, one of history's most extreme tyrants, and the subject of Marlowe's famous play. Marozzi travelled in the footsteps of the great Mogul Emperor of Samarkland...

A lucid, gripping account of the human side of one of the bloodiest chapters of British history. The war between the houses of Lancaster and York for the throne of England was characterised by treachery, deceit and - at St Albans, Blore Hill and Towton,...

In the long run, we're all dead. But for some of the most influential figures in history, death marked the start of a new adventure. The famous deceased have been stolen, burned, sold, pickled, frozen, stuffed, impersonated and even filed away in a...

"There once is a Queen ever constant to her people..." From the Nation's Favourite Storyteller Sir Michael Morpurgo comes a poetic celebration of our Queen and longest...

"There once is a Queen ever constant to her people..." From the Nation's Favourite Storyteller Sir Michael Morpurgo comes a poetic celebration of our Queen and longest...