Royalty History

Few mixtures are as toxic as absolute power and insanity. When nothing stands between a leader's delusion whims and seeing them carried them out, all sorts of bizarre outcomes are possible. Whatever their background, these rulers show that dynastic politics made sure that a rightful heir always got on the throne - despite that heir's mental condition - and that power can destroy a mind worse than any mental illness.

Ellen Alpsten's stunning new novel, The Tsarina's Daughter, is the dramatic story of Elizabeth, daughter of Catherine I and Peter the Great, who ruled Russia during an extraordinary life marked by love, danger, passion, and scandal.

The Queen of Great Britain and Ireland for 63 years, Queen Victoria’s life was one of magnificent proportions. Victoria’s childhood was difficult and lonely, but from the time she took the throne aged just 18, she blossomed into a powerful woman, both frivolous and formidable. In her later years, Victoria struggled to find balance between her wish to live a very private life as a widow and her duty to live the very public life of a queen and later empress.

Coronada reina de Escocia con apenas seis días, María Estuardo es uno de los personajes más enigmáticos y apasionantes de su tiempo. Su vida y sus desdichas han suscitado la curiosidad de multitud de estudiosos. Educada en Francia, refinada, culta y hermosa, su adhesión al catolicismo en la turbulenta época de las revueltas protestantes, la complicada política sucesoria en Inglaterra, así como la fragilidad política del reino de Escocia la convirtieron en una traidora intrigante y en una santa de la Iglesia católica al mismo tiempo. El retrato de toda una época.

On 6 July 1868, when told of the birth of her seventh granddaughter, Queen Victoria remarked that the news was "a very uninteresting thing for it seems to me to go on like the rabbits in Windsor Park". Her apathy was understandable - this was her 14th grandchild, and, though she had given birth to nine children, she had never been fond of babies, viewing them as "frog-like and rather disgusting...particularly when undressed".

Henry V is one of the most famous monarchs England ever had. His story is one of incredible rise against overwhelming odds: as heir to the throne, he began as a complete failure, his reputation very low, as he was an insecure ruler and victim to plots and cabals to remove him from power. While England was at war with France, everything seemed to go from terrible to terribly worse. The Battle of Agincourt was one of the most impressive gambles ever taken in military history.

A remarkably fresh and engaging account of Britain’s long-reigning monarch, Queen Victoria, who ascended to the throne at 18, in 1837, and died in 1901. Lytton Strachey captures her essential spirit in concise and elegant prose, with an eye and an ear keenly attuned to human nature, and its foibles. Written only 20 years after her death, this biography exemplifies the emergence of modern thought from the Victorian Era.

It was the most influential marriage of the 19th Century - and one of history’s most enduring love stories. Traditional biographies tell us that Queen Victoria inherited the throne as a naïve teenager, when the British Empire was at the height of its power, and seemed doomed to find failure as a monarch and misery as a woman until she married her German cousin Albert and accepted him as her lord and master. Now renowned chronicler Gillian Gill turns this familiar story on its head, revealing a strong, feisty queen, and a brilliant, fragile prince working together to build a family.

Elizabeth was crowned at 25 after a tempestuous childhood as a bastard and an outcast, but it was only when she reached 50 and all hopes of a royal marriage were dashed that she began to wield real power in her own right. For 25 years she had struggled to assert her authority over advisers who pressed her to marry and settle the succession; now, she was determined not only to reign but also to rule.

In 1785, a sensational trial began in Paris that would divide the country and captivate Europe. A leading Catholic cardinal and scion of one of the most distinguished families in France stood accused of forging the queen's signature to obtain the most expensive piece of jewelry in Europe: a 2,800-carat diamond necklace. Where were the diamonds? Was the cardinal innocent? Was, for that matter, the queen?

From 1381 - when Sir John Cavendish, Lord Chief Justice of England, was killed during the Peasant’s Revolt - to 1906, when the Duke of Devonshire’s resignation brought down the Tory government: the family’s fortunes (and misfortunes) mirrored the life of the nation. The Devonshires is also the story of the huge support networks of servants and labour needed to sustain the supremacy of a family whose accumulated wealth, from the dissolution of the monasteries to the coming of the railways, saw them found ship ports, holiday resorts, scientific laboratories, stud farms and some of the most significant buildings in the land.

Aunque de origen alemán, tuvo una excelente formación a "la francesa". Asumió el cargo de emperatriz como sucesora de su marido Pedro III, que murió en un complot en 1762 (año que Catalina tomó el poder). Por su estrategia de política interior y exterior intentó una europeización del país, y otorgó a la nobleza un puesto relevante que hasta ese momento no habían tenido. Interiormente fracasó su intento de crear un código con las ideas de Montesquieu y vivió una contienda en 1773 con los campesinos, por la nefasta situación social que la población vivía.

The Despensers were a baronial English family who rose to great prominence in the reign of Edward II (1307-27) when Hugh Despenser the Younger became the king's chamberlain, favorite, and perhaps, lover. He and his father Hugh the Elder wielded great influence, and Hugh the Younger's greed and tyranny brought down a king for the first time in English history and almost destroyed his own family. The Rise and Fall of a Medieval Family tells the story of the ups and downs of this fascinating family from the thirteenth to the fifteenth centuries.

Ed Owens has won for himself key roles as a historian of the monarchy and as a royal commentator, but one who is meticulously objective in his judgements. Nothing seems certain. Will the monarchy survive with its continuing echoes of an Imperial past? Will young people - disenchanted with the political status quo - find the ritual and practice of the monarchy quite so mesmerising as previous generations have done? What might a republican Britain look like?

The history of women in medieval Wales before the English conquest of 1282 is one largely shrouded in mystery. This misfortune touches even the most well-known royal woman of the time, Joan of England, the wife of Llywelyn the Great of Gwynedd. This first-ever account of Siwan, as she was known to the Welsh, interweaves the details of her life and relationships with a gendered re-assessment of Anglo-Welsh politics by highlighting her involvement in affairs, discussing events in which she may well have been involved but have gone unrecorded and her deployment of royal female agency.

Drawn from the Royal archives, including Prince Albert’s voluminous correspondence, this brilliant and ambitious book offers fascinating never-before-known details about the man and his time. A superb match of biographer and subject, Prince Albert, at last, gives this important historical figure the reverence and recognition that is long overdue.

When they married Emperors Franz Joseph and Napoleon III, respectively, Elisabeth of Austria and Eugénie of France became two of the most famous women on the planet. Not only were they both young and beautiful—becoming cultural and fashion icons of their time—but they played a pivotal role in ruling their realms during a tempestuous era characterized by unprecedented political and technological change. Fearless, adventurous, and independent, Elisabeth and Eugénie represented a new kind of empress—one who rebelled against tradition and anticipated and embraced modern values.

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.

Whetshire Fortress, Wessex, A.D. 1171: Since birth Lady Ginevra has been betrothed to Lord Wolfram, second son to the Count of Whetshire. There was never any question as to whom she would marry or who she would be. Life has been mapped out for her and she's going to live happily ever after as a Countess. However, there is one complication to her plans. Her rogue of a future husband isn't taking to their life together with open arms. In fact, he seems to enjoy finding reasons to put the nuptials off.

Under the watchful eye of the Giants, the kingdoms of Men rose to power. Now, the Giant-King has slain the last of the Serpents and ushered in an era of untold peace and prosperity. Where a fire-blackened desert once stood, golden cities flourish in verdant fields. But the realms of Man face a new threat: an ancient sorcerer slaughters the rightful King of Yaskatha before the unbelieving eyes of his son, young Prince D'zan.