Amberley Publishing, 2011. — 255 p. Doomed queen of Henry VIII, mother to Elizabeth I, the epic story of Anne Boleyn.Anne Boleyn was the most controversial and scandalous woman ever to sit on the throne of England. From her early days at the imposing Hever Castle in Kent, to the glittering courts of Paris and London, Anne caused a stir wherever she went. Alluring but not...
Amberley Publishing, 2015. — 455 p. Her story not his, the English monarchy through the private and public lives of the queens of England. Nearly eighty women have sat on the throne of England, either as queen regnant or queen consort and the voices of all of them survive through their own writings and those of their contemporaries. The primary role of the queen over the ages...
Amberley Publishing, 2015. — 320 p. Simon de Montfort's combination of charisma, determination, and fearlessness made him one of the greatest men of his age. This new biography marks 750 years since Montfort established the earliest forerunner of our modern English parliament. Unlike Brutus, Simon de Montfort chose to fight it out to the end, with the same defiance that had...
Amberley Publishing, 2016. — 304 p. Henry III became King of England within days of his ninth birthday. His father, King John, had overseen a disastrous period in English history and the boy king inherited a country embroiled in a bitter, entrenched war with itself. With barons inviting a French prince to take the crown, the young Henry was forced to rely on others to maintain...
Orion, 2011. — 1159 p. The national-bestselling author of Mary Queen of Scots delivers a masterful biography of the Puritan rebel Oliver Cromwell: “Rich and extraordinary”. In Cromwell, award-winning biographer Antonia Fraser tells of one of England’s most celebrated and controversial figures, often misunderstood and demonized as a puritanical zealot. Oliver Cromwell rose from...
Harper and Collins, 2019. — 331 p. A nuanced biography of Oliver Cromwell, breaking down Cromwell's life into different parts: fenland farmer and humble backbencher; stalwart of the good old cause and the New Model Army; key figure of the Commonwealth; and finally Lord Protector. Hill leads the reader unsentimentally through Cromwell's life from his beginnings in...
Pen and Sword Military, 2020. — 172 p. An examination of the political and military controversies that turned out to be missteps on the road to greatness for the British Prime Minister. Winston Churchill is undoubtedly one of the most respected and best-loved characters England has ever known. However, much of how people view him is based on his leadership during the bleak and...
Yale University Press, 2002. — 400 р. — (Yale English Monarchs). Neither a feckless knight-errant nor a king who neglected his kingdom, Richard I was in reality a masterful and businesslike ruler. In this wholly rewritten version of a classic account of the reign of Richard The Lionheart, John Gillingham scrutinizes the reasons for the King’s fluctuating reputation over...
Yale University Press, 2000. — 512 p. — (Yale English Monarchs). William II, better known as William Rufus, was the third son of William the Conqueror and England’s king for only 13 years (1087–1100) before he was mysteriously assassinated. In this vivid biography, here updated and reissued with a new preface, Frank Barlow reveals an unconventional, flamboyant William Rufus―a...
University of Chicago Press, 2023. — 304 p. A reparative reading of stories about medieval queen Eleanor of Aquitaine. Much of what we know about Eleanor of Aquitaine, Queen of France and then Queen of England, we know from recorded rumor—gossip often qualified by the curious phrase “it was said,” or the love songs, ballads, and romances that gossip inspired. While we can mine...
The History Press, 2011. — 368 p. Recreating the turbulent life of one of the most exciting women in European medieval history, this biography reveals a peculiarly "modern" queen Eleanor of Aquitaine was the only person ever to sit on the thrones of both France and England. This account of the adventures of the extraordinary mother of Richard the Lionheart and King John takes...
I.B. Tauris, 2012. — 338 p. Winston Churchill is one of the dominating figures of the 20th century. In this stimulating and original book, David Dilks presents Churchill, not only as a war leader and international statesman, but also as a private person with a rich variety of friendships and rivalries. New and penetrating light is directed on Churchill during World War II. This...
Simon and Schuster, 2014. — 470 p. Between his rise and his fall, young Winston Churchill built a modern navy, experimented with radical social reforms, survived various threats on his life, made powerful enemies and a few good friends, became a husband and father, took the measure of the German military machine, and faced deadly artillery barrages on the Western front. Along...
St. Martin's Publishing Group, 2015. — 252 p. To Thomas Carlyle he was "not worth his weight in cold bacon," but, to Queen Victoria, Benjamin Disraeli was "the kindest Minister" she had ever had and a "dear and devoted friend." In this masterly biography by England's "outstanding popular historian" (A.N. Wilson), Christopher Hibbert reveals the personal life of one of the most...
The History Press, 2018. — 224 p. Churchill has gone down in history as one of the greatest leaders the world has ever known. From the day the Second World War was declared he stood out as the only man wanting to take offensive action. But is this accolade deserved? The first few years of the war were nothing short of disastrous, and author Stephen Napier shows how Churchill's...
Longman, 2014. — 217 p. — (Profiles in Power). Oliver Cromwell is one of the most puzzling and controversial figures in English history. In this excellent introduction, Barry Coward uses Cromwell's own words and actions to analyse the life of Oliver Cromwell as a political figure and look at the historical problems associated with his exercise of power. As I understand it, Mr...
Harper Perennial, 2005. — 688 p. The Sunday Times bestselling biography of one of the towering figures in British history who became Prime Minister at the age of twenty-four, written by the youngest-ever leader of the Tory Party. The younger William Pitt -- known as the 'schoolboy' -- began his days as Prime Minister in 1783 deeply underestimated and completely beleaguered. Yet...
Penguin Books, 2017. — 320 p. Although he styled himself 'His Highness', adopted the court ritual of his royal predecessors, and lived in the former royal palaces of Whitehall and Hampton Court, Oliver Cromwell was not a king - in spite of the best efforts of his supporters to crown him. Yet, as David Horspool shows in this illuminating new portrait of England's Lord Protector,...
Rowman and Littlefield Publishers, 2020. — 320 p. Winston Churchill has for decades been regarded as one of the greatest statesmen of the 20th century, not just in his home country Britain but in the USA as well, where he continues to be an inspiration to many to this day. In 2002 he was voted The Greatest Briton, and the 2016 movie The Darkest Hour continues his global iconic...
The History Press, 2015. — 128 p. Why is Alfred the Great? A simple answer is that he has been seen as a man who saved England, invented English identity and pioneered English as a written language. He is the first Englishman for whom a biography survives so that we know more about Alfred and his ideals than we do for most people who lived over a thousand years ago. A slightly...
Revised Edition. — Duckworth, 1973. — 128 p. Succinct bio of the "most typical of all Englishmen". Cromwell was not a radical, even so he found that he had won the war but lost the principle he had been fought for. Washington succeeded accomplishing both. Big difference was that the American Revolution was not fought over religion, just politics and economics. Of course, the...
Routledge, 2016. — 264 p. It has become customary to trace Pitt’s political career chronologically in two unequal parts: the years of peace and reform, followed by the years of war and repression. This I have tried to avoid, since I am inclined to agree with Pitt’s much abused ‘official biographer’, George Pretyman Tomline, that ‘Mr Pitt’s administration forms a consistent...
Bloomsbury Publishing, 2017. — 320 p. Herbert Gladstone (1854-1930) was the only one of the sons of the renowned nineteenth-century Prime Minister William Ewart Gladstone to enjoy a significant political career in his own right. Yet he has been generally relegated to the wings of history's stage, destined, it seems, to remain permanently in the shadow of his illustrious parent....
Haus Publishing, 2009. — 288 p. David Lloyd George (1863-1945). The end of the First World War saw Britain at the height of its power. Its fleet and air force were the largest in the world. Its armies had triumphed in the Middle East and spearheaded the final attacks in Western Europe that had driven the defeated Germans to seek an armistice. Britain now had to translate this...
Collier Books, 1962. — 228 p. 'The man - it is ever so with the noblest - was greater than his work.' Oliver Cromwell (1599-1658) is undoubtedly one of the most controversial figures in the history of the British Isles. After his religious conversion towards Puritanism in the 1630s, the future Lord Protector engaged in political conduct that was rather controversial. Up to the...
Longman, 1992. — 220 p. Oliver Cromwell is one of the most puzzling and controversial figures in English history. In this excellent introduction, Barry Coward uses Cromwell's own words and actions to analyse the life of Oliver Cromwell as a political figure and look at the historical problems associated with his exercise of power. As I understand it, Mr Coward puts forward an...
Sphere Books, 1971. — 579 p. John Buchan sets out to redress many misconceived popular opinions of this English soldier and statesman. His biography achieves that aim, starting with Cromwell's childhood and youth. Born in 1599, Cromwell was a devout Puritan who, when the civil war broke out, quickly joined the Parliamentary forces. He fought many battles including Marston Moor...
Blackwell Publishing, 1997. — 284 p. This book re-examines Cromwell's life and career. It opens with an assessment of the man and myth, exploring the legends which surround Cromwell, the differing interpretations advanced by generations of historians and the source material upon which such interpretations can be based. The book then provides an extensive, chronologically based...
Faber and Faber, 2014. — 288 p. Of the three revisionist works John Charmley has written about British foreign policy in the mid-twentieth century this is the centrepiece. The author argues that Churchill deserves more credit for 'their finest hour' than has been granted, but just as his virtues were built on the heroic scale, so too were his faults and failures. The statesman...
Rosetta Books, 2015. — 967 p. Winston S. Churchill: World In Torment, 1916-1922 is the fourth volume of the definitive biography of Winston S. Churchill. Covering the years 1917 to 1922, Martin Gilbert's fascinating account carefully traces Churchill's wide-ranging activities and shows how, by his persuasive oratory, administrative skill, and masterful contributions to Cabinet...
Amberley Publishing, 2011. — 224 p. A biography of Henry VIII's fifth wife, beheaded for playing Henry at his own game - adultery. At seven o'clock on the morning of 13 February 1542, Catherine Howard stepped out into the cold of the great courtyard of the Tower of London. Slowly she was escorted across the yard and carefully helped up the steps of the wooden scaffold. Only a...
Thomas Nelson, 2009. — 272 p. The unlikely king who saved England. Down swept the Vikings from the frigid North. Across the English coastlands and countryside they raided, torched, murdered, and destroyed all in their path. Farmers, monks, and soldiers all fell bloody under the Viking sword, hammer, and axe. Then, when the hour was most desperate, came an unlikely hero. King...
Amberley Publishing, 2019. — 320 p. Edward the Elder, king of the Anglo-Saxons between c. 899-924, succeeded to the throne following the death of his father Alfred the Great. It was therefore Edward's destiny to follow in the wake of the most famous Anglo-Saxon king of them all. In turn, Edward was followed by his son Æthelstan, the man that historians think of as the first...
Aurum Press, 2015. — 392 p. By Winston Churchill's own admission, his role in the Second World War would have been impossible but for Clemmie. This biography tells Clementines often ignored story, from her birth into an aristocratic yet loveless family to her meeting with Winston in 1908; then traces the couples personal and political upheavals during the First World War,...
Doubleday, 2016. — 400 p. From New York Times bestselling author of Destiny of the Republic and The River of Doubt, a thrilling narrative of Winston Churchill's extraordinary and little-known exploits during the Boer War. At age twenty-four, Winston Churchill was utterly convinced it was his destiny to become prime minister of England one day, despite the fact he had just lost...
Yale University Press, 2011. — 329 p. — (The Yale English Monarchs Series). Despite a long and eventful reign, Britain's George II is a largely forgotten monarch, his achievements overlooked and his abilities misunderstood. This landmark biography uncovers extensive new evidence in British and German archives, making possible the most complete and accurate assessment of this...
Yale University Press, 2009. — 448 p. — (The Yale English Monarchs Series). The sixty-year reign of George III (1760–1820) witnessed and participated in some of the most critical events of modern world history: the ending of the Seven Years’ War with France, the American War of Independence, the French Revolutionary Wars, the campaign against Napoleon Bonaparte and battle of...
Yale University Press, 2011. — 560 p. — (The Yale English Monarchs Series). Henry VIII's forceful personality dominated his age and continues to fascinate our own. In few other reigns have there been developments of such magnitude—in politics, foreign relations, religion, and society—that have so radically affected succeeding generations. Above all the English Reformation and...
Yale University Press, 2001. — 418 p. — (The Yale English Monarchs Series). The reign of Queen Anne, the last Stuart monarch, was a period of significant progress for the country: Britain became a major military power on land, the union of England and Scotland created a united kingdom of Great Britain, and the economic and political basis for the Golden Age of the eighteenth...
Yale University Press, 2011. — 480 p. — (The Yale English Monarchs Series). Thanks in part to Shakespeare, Henry V is one of England's best-known monarchs. The image of the king leading his army against the French, and the great victory at Agincourt, are part of English historical tradition. Yet, though indeed a soldier of exceptional skill, Henry V's reputation needs to be...
Yale University Press, 2020. — 352 p. — (The Yale English Monarchs Series). One of the last kings of Anglo-Saxon England, Edward the Confessor regained the throne for the House of Wessex and is the only English monarch to have been canonized. Often cast as a reluctant ruler, easily manipulated by his in-laws, he has been blamed for causing the invasion of 1066—the last...
Brepols Publishers, 2014. — 250 p. The three daughters of Henry II and Eleanor of Aquitaine all undertook exogamous marriages which cemented dynastic alliances and furthered the political and diplomatic ambitions of their parents and their spouses. It might be expected that the choices made by Matilda, Leonor, and Joanna with regard to religious patronage and dynastic...
Harvard University Press, 2006. — 240 p. When the BBC ran a poll in 2001 to name the greatest Briton, Alfred, a ninth-century monarch, was the only king to make the top 20. Also the only English sovereign to be called "the Great," Alfred used to be remembered as much through folklore as through his accomplishments. Horspool sees Alfred as inextricably linked to the legends and...
St. Martin's Press, 1986. — 224 p. The whole subject is brought up to date - Arthurian buffs will want this book. Who was the real Arthur? Why were his knights so famous? Was he buried at Glastonbury? Richard Barber takes the story from the anonymous 8th century chronicler who first listed his battles to the novelists of the 20th century. A clear and readable account of the...
I. B. Tauris, 2012. — 359 p. 1066 is the most famous date in English history. On October 14th, on Senlac Hill near Hastings, a battle was fought that would change the face of England forever. Over the next twenty years, Norman culture was imposed on England, and English politics and society were radically reshaped. But how much is really known about William "the Conqueror," the...
University of California Press, 1990. — 512 p. When King John died in October 1216, Henry, his eldest son, was only nine years old. It was not until January 1227 that he assumed full regal powers. Thus England experienced its first royal minority since the Norman Conquest. The early part of Henry III's minority was a period of acute political crisis. The throne itself had to be...
Sapere Books, 2021. — 264 p. Henry VIII is one of England’s most famous kings, yet what do we know of his childhood? What was life like for the young prince growing up in the royal palaces? And just how influential were the people surrounding Henry in shaping the suspicious, vain and ruthless monarch he would later become? Marie Louise Bruce’s engrossing account of Henry’s...
Yale University Press, 2003. — 575 p. — (The Yale English Monarchs Series). Henry I, son of William the Conqueror, ruled from 1100 to 1135, a time of fundamental change in the Anglo-Norman world. This long-awaited biography, written by one of the most distinguished medievalists of his generation, offers a major reassessment of Henry’s character and reign. Challenging the dark...
Unicorn Publishing Group, 2021. — 576 p. This book tells the story of William of Orange before he became the king of England, examining the system of clan family and patron-client relationships across Europe on which the prince’s political and diplomatic influences rested. His skillful personal ability with the political elites in the Dutch Republic and England enabled his rise...
Summit Books, 1983. — 448 p. In this remarkable biography, Carolly Erickson brings Elizabeth I to life and allows us to see her as a living, breathing, elegant, flirtatious, diplomatic, violent, arrogant, and outrageous woman who commands our attention, fascination, and awe. With the special skill for which she is acclaimed, Carolly Erickson electrifies the senses as she evokes...