English Royalty Biographies

Life in a castle isn’t always a fairytale, as the Duchess of Rutland vividly illustrates in her fascinating, revealing and funny autobiography. When Emma Watkins, the pony-mad daughter of a Welsh farmer, imagined her future it was as the wife of a younger version of her father. But then she fell in love with David Manners, having no idea that he was heir to one of the most senior hereditary titles in the land. When David succeeded his father, against all the odds Emma became the chatelaine of Belvoir Castle, ancestral home of the Dukes of Rutland.

Until the implementation of new legislation on March 26, 2015, men were given preference to women in the British royal line. This system of male primogeniture meant that women seldom inherited the throne, and even when they did, they were often dominated by male councilors. Those women who married British kings gained the title of queen, but they were queen consorts, holding the title with no power. This makes Elizabeth II one of a select few queens regnant - queens ruling in their own right.

She came to the throne in 1952 when Britain had a far-flung empire, sweets were rationed, mums stayed home and kids played on bombsites. Seventy years on, everything has changed utterly—except the Queen herself, ageing far more gracefully than the fractious nation over which she so lightly presides. How did we get from there to here in a single reign? To cancel culture, anti-vaxxers and Twitter feeds? Matthew Engel tells the story—starting with the years from Churchill to Thatcher—with his own light touch and a wealth of fascinating, forgotten, often funny detail.

Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter and former Wall Street Journal publisher, Karen House has gained unprecedented insights into Saudi Arabia and its controversial leader, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman through her more than forty years of experience covering the Arab kingdom. Drawing on extensive interviews with the Crown Prince, his family, and his inner ring of advisors, The Seventh Son explains in full what shaped the man who is reshaping Saudi Arabia.

The second volume of David Hume's classic survey of English history covers nearly 300 years (1200-1485) from the long reign of Henry III to the dramatic end of Richard III on Bosworth Field—he was the last Plantagenet, and the last king of England to die in battle. In telling this all-action tale, Hume delves deeply into contemporary records and presents a considered, even sympathetic view, showing that many factors, not just personalities, resulted in dramatic consequences for the nation.

Born in 1729, Princess Sophie of Anhalt-Zerbs was never supposed to come to power. But at age 16, she married the heir to the Russian throne. By 1762, Sophie, known now as Catherine, overthrew her immature and incompetent husband, Peter III, to lead the nation. Catherine became the sole ruler of Russia. This exciting Who Was? title explores how Catherine was able to turn Russia into one of the great powers of Europe by expanding its borders, helping improve its educational system, and advocating for the arts. Her three-decade reign is considered the Golden Age of Russia.

For many, she was simply the last of King Henry VIII’s many wives, but Catherine Parr was much more than that. She had a unique and incredible history all of her own. Catherine was a dynamic figure who survived more than her fair share of hardship. Even before she married Henry, she found herself caught up in the drama of England’s Reformation, and at one point, she was even held hostage in her own home by religious radicals.

Loyal sister and friend to Queen Elizabeth II, Princess Margaret grew up in the public gaze and was one of the most-discussed women in the world. But what was early life like for the younger sibling of the future monarch? And what role did she carve for herself within the Royal Family?

In his ambition to provide a male heir to the throne, Henry VIII married six times. Divorce from his first wife, Catherine of Aragon, caused England’s break from the Catholic Church in Rome. He went on to divorce Anne of Cleves and behead Anne Boleyn and Katherine Howard for infidelities. Jane Seymour died and Catherine Parr survived Henry. Henry VIII’s Wives: History in an Hour will introduce you to these six entirely diverse and captivating personalities and the events that propelled them to their individual fates.

From a hunchbacked dwarf to a paranoid poet-assassin, a history of Victorian England as seen through the numerous assassination attempts on Queen Victoria while she ruled the British empire. During Queen Victoria’s 64 years on the British throne, no fewer than eight attempts were made on her life. Murphy follows each would-be assassin and the repercussions of their actions, illuminating daily life in Victorian England, the development of the monarchy under Queen Victoria, and the evolution of the attacks in light of changing social issues and technology.

This compelling book begins on the 2nd of August 1793, the day Marie Antoinette was torn from her family's arms and escorted from the Temple to the Conciergerie, a thick-walled fortress turned prison. It was also known as the "waiting room for the guillotine" because prisoners only spent a day or two here before their conviction and subsequent execution. The ex-queen surely knew her days were numbered, but she could never have known that two and a half months would pass before she would finally stand trial and be convicted.

This is the Prince Harry you've never heard about before. Published in celebration of his 30th birthday, this is the story behind the tabloid stories. The Prince who has the power to make or break. The maverick Prince, who is brilliant, impetuous, and unpredictable. The Prince who with his unique talents, charm, and bloody-minded determination is changing lives across the world. But the Prince who could, in a moment of madness, bring it all crashing down.

The story of the worlds best-remembered celebrity couple, set against the political backdrop of their time. Oceans of mythology have grown up around them, all of which Diana Preston explores in her stirring history of the lives and times of a couple whose names more than two millennia later still invoke passion, curiosity, and intrigue.

Through the centuries, succession to the English throne has largely been dictated by blood. Children were born to the role, their destinies entwined with that of the nation. They would be raised with the expectation that they would eventually take their place on the throne and rule the land. But not all those expected to wear the crown completed this journey. Ashley Mantle explores the lives of several heirs apparent, from the Norman Conquest to the present day, who were destined to assume the throne of England but, for one reason or another, did not.

One of the most famous queens in history, Mary Stuart lived in her homeland for just twelve years: as a dauntless child who laughed at her friends' seasickness as they sailed to safety in France and later, on her return as an eighteen-year-old widow to take control of a nation riven with factions, dissent, and religious strife. Brief though her in time Scotland was, her experience profoundly influenced who she was and what happened to her.

Antony Armstrong-Jones, photographer, designer and film-maker, gained worldwide attention when he married Queen Elizabeth II's younger sister, Princess Margaret in 1960—the first non-aristocrat to marry into the Royal Family for 400 years. How did a "commoner" come to marry a princess, a woman whom he had long admired from afar? In fact, "Tony" descended from Welsh gentry, the son of a barrister and a society hostess. His family shared a long-established link with the Mountbatten arm of the Royal Family.

Royal biographer Helen Cathcart's fascinatingly intimate account charts Elizabeth's extraordinary life, from her birth and early years growing up in the royal palaces—sleeping in the dungeons of Windsor Castle during the air raids of the Blitz—through to her marriage to Prince Philip in 1947, and their life together as new parents.

In this unusually personal document, Queen Liliʻuokalani paints a detailed picture of life in a royal family—something few such figures ever attempt. She shares important memories from her childhood and chronicles her life on the international stage, beginning with her momentous ascension to the throne and ending with her effective overthrow by American businessmen and politicians who had little interest in maintaining Hawaii’s autonomy.

If the news about Harry, William, Kate, Meghan, and the rest of the British royals has you wondering about how this latest generation of princes, princesses, dukes, and duchesses got their start, you're not alone. Queen Elizabeth II For Dummies takes you on a fascinating journey through the life of Great Britain's longest-serving monarch.

Sayyida Salme lived a remarkable life in remarkable times and told the tale more than a century ago in her Memoirs of an Arabian Princess, the first book published by an Arab woman. She was born in 1844 as a princess on the island of Zanzibar, daughter of the great Omani Sayyid Said bin Sultan and his Circassian slave Djilfidan. By the time she published her Memoirs in German in 1886, she had moved from Arab royalty amidst harem politics to the challenges of raising a family as a single mother in a foreign land, with her new Christian name, Emily Ruete.