William III & Mary II (Penguin Monarchs)

William III & Mary II (Penguin Monarchs) PDF

Author: Jonathan Keates

Publisher: Penguin UK

Published: 2015-04-30

Total Pages: 112

ISBN-13: 0141976888

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

William III (1689-1702) & Mary II (1689-94) (Britain's only ever 'joint monarchs') changed the course of the entire country's history, coming to power through a coup (which involved Mary betraying her own father), reestablishing parliament on a new footing and, through commiting Britain to fighting France, initiating an immensely long period of warfare and colonial expansion. Jonathan Keates' wonderful book makes both monarchs vivid, the cold, shrewd 'Dutch' William and the shortlived Mary, whose life and death inspired Purcell to write some of his greatest music.

William and Mary (Penguin Monarchs)

William and Mary (Penguin Monarchs) PDF

Author: Jonathan Keates

Publisher: National Geographic Books

Published: 2015-06-30

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 014197687X

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

William III (1689-1702) & Mary II (1689-94) (Britain's only ever 'joint monarchs') changed the course of the entire country's history, coming to power through a coup (which involved Mary betraying her own father), reestablishing parliament on a new footing and, through commiting Britain to fighting France, initiating an immensely long period of warfare and colonial expansion. Jonathan Keates' wonderful book makes both monarchs vivid, the cold, shrewd 'Dutch' William and the shortlived Mary, whose life and death inspired Purcell to write some of his greatest music.

William II (Penguin Monarchs)

William II (Penguin Monarchs) PDF

Author: John Gillingham

Publisher: Penguin UK

Published: 2015-08-27

Total Pages: 192

ISBN-13: 0141978562

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

William II (1087-1100), or William Rufus, will always be most famous for his death: killed by an arrow while out hunting, perhaps through accident or perhaps murder. But, as John Gillingham makes clear in this elegant book, as the son and successor to William the Conqueror it was William Rufus who had to establish permanent Norman rule. A ruthless, irascible man, he frequently argued acrimoniously with his older brother Robert over their father's inheritance - but he also handed out effective justice, leaving as his legacy one of the most extraordinary of all medieval buildings, Westminster Hall.

Henry I (Penguin Monarchs)

Henry I (Penguin Monarchs) PDF

Author: Edmund King

Publisher: Penguin UK

Published: 2018-07-26

Total Pages: 144

ISBN-13: 0141978996

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

'To be a medieval king was a job of work ... This was a man who knew how to run a complex organization. He was England's CEO' The youngest of William the Conqueror's sons, Henry I came to unchallenged power only after two of his brothers died in strange hunting accidents and he had imprisoned the other. He was destined to become one of the greatest of all medieval monarchs, both through his own ruthlessness, and through his dynastic legacy. Edmund King's engrossing portrait shows a strikingly charismatic, intelligent and fortunate man, whose rule was looked back on as the real post-conquest founding of England as a new realm: wealthy, stable, bureaucratised and self-confident.

Elizabeth II (Penguin Monarchs)

Elizabeth II (Penguin Monarchs) PDF

Author: Douglas Hurd

Publisher: Penguin UK

Published: 2015-08-27

Total Pages: 160

ISBN-13: 0141979429

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

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 Cambridge

Charles II (Penguin Monarchs)

Charles II (Penguin Monarchs) PDF

Author: Clare Jackson

Publisher: Penguin UK

Published: 2016-03-31

Total Pages: 144

ISBN-13: 0141979771

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

Charles II has always been one of the most instantly recognisable British kings - both in his physical appearance, disseminated through endless portraits, prints and pub signs, and in his complicated mix of lasciviousness, cynicism and luxury. His father's execution and his own many years of exile made him a guarded, curious, unusually self-conscious ruler. He lived through some of the most striking events in the national history - from the Civil Wars to the Great Plague, from the Fire of London to the wars with the Dutch. Clare Jackson's marvellous book takes full advantage of its irrepressible subject.

George II (Penguin Monarchs)

George II (Penguin Monarchs) PDF

Author: Norman Davies

Publisher: Penguin UK

Published: 2021-05-27

Total Pages: 201

ISBN-13: 0141978430

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

From the celebrated historian and author of Europe: A History, a new life of George II George 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.

Richard II (Penguin Monarchs)

Richard II (Penguin Monarchs) PDF

Author: Laura Ashe

Publisher: Penguin UK

Published: 2016-01-28

Total Pages: 144

ISBN-13: 0141979909

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

Richard II (1377-99) came to the throne as a child, following the long, domineering, martial reign of his grandfather Edward III. He suffered from the disastrous combination of a most exalted sense of his own power and an inability to impress that power on those closest to the throne. Neither trusted nor feared, Richard battled with a whole series of failures and emergencies before finally succumbing to a coup, imprisonment and murder. Laura Ashe's brilliant account of his reign emphasizes the strange gap between Richard's personal incapacity and the amazing cultural legacy of his reign - from the Wilton Diptych to Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Piers Plowman and The Canterbury Tales.

Henry II (Penguin Monarchs)

Henry II (Penguin Monarchs) PDF

Author: Richard Barber

Publisher: Penguin UK

Published: 2015-04-30

Total Pages: 112

ISBN-13: 0141977094

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

Henry II (1154-89) through a series of astonishing dynastic coups became the ruler of an enormous European empire. One of the most dynamic, restless and clever men ever to rule England, he was brought down both by his catastrophic relationship with his archbishop Thomas Becket and his debilitating arguments with his sons, most importantly the future Richard I and King John. His empire may have ultimately collapsed, but in Richard Barber's vivid and sympathetic account the reader can see why Henry II left such a compelling impression on his contemporaries.

George V (Penguin Monarchs)

George V (Penguin Monarchs) PDF

Author: David Cannadine

Publisher: Penguin UK

Published: 2014-12-04

Total Pages: 144

ISBN-13: 014197690X

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

For a man with such conventional tastes and views, George V had a revolutionary impact. Almost despite himself he marked a decisive break with his flamboyant predecessor Edward VII, inventing the modern monarchy, with its emphasis on frequent public appearances, family values and duty. George V was an effective war-leader and inventor of 'the House of Windsor'. In an era of ever greater media coverage--frequently filmed and initiating the British Empire Christmas broadcast--George became for 25 years a universally recognised figure. He was also the only British monarch to take his role as Emperor of India seriously. While his great rivals (Tsar Nicolas and Kaiser Wilhelm) ended their reigns in catastrophe, he plodded on. David Cannadine's sparkling account of his reign could not be more enjoyable, a masterclass in how to write about Monarchy, that central--if peculiar--pillar of British life.