Charles II (Penguin Monarchs)
Title | Charles II (Penguin Monarchs) PDF eBook |
Author | Clare Jackson |
Publisher | Penguin UK |
Pages | 126 |
Release | 2016-03-31 |
Genre | Biography & Autobiography |
ISBN | 0141979771 |
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.
Charles II
Title | Charles II PDF eBook |
Author | Clare Jackson |
Publisher | National Geographic Books |
Pages | 0 |
Release | 2016-04-26 |
Genre | Biography & Autobiography |
ISBN | 0141979763 |
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.
James II (Penguin Monarchs)
Title | James II (Penguin Monarchs) PDF eBook |
Author | David Womersley |
Publisher | Penguin UK |
Pages | 244 |
Release | 2015-04-30 |
Genre | Biography & Autobiography |
ISBN | 0141977078 |
The short, action-packed reign of James II (1685-88) is generally seen as one of the most catastrophic in British history. James managed, despite having access to tremendous reserves of good will and deference, to so alienate his supporters that he had to flee for his life. And yet, most of that life was spent not as king but first as heir to Charles II, as Duke of York (after whom New York is named) and then in the last part of his life as the first Jacobite 'Pretender', starting a problem that would haunt Britain's rulers for generations.
Charles I (Penguin Monarchs)
Title | Charles I (Penguin Monarchs) PDF eBook |
Author | Mark Kishlansky |
Publisher | Penguin UK |
Pages | 125 |
Release | 2014-12-04 |
Genre | Biography & Autobiography |
ISBN | 0141979844 |
The tragedy of Charles I dominates one of the most strange and painful periods in British history as the whole island tore itself apart over a deadly, entangled series of religious and political disputes. In Mark Kishlansky's brilliant account it is never in doubt that Charles created his own catastrophe, but he was nonetheless opposed by men with far fewer scruples and less consistency who for often quite contradictory reasons conspired to destroy him. This is a remarkable portrait of one of the most talented, thoughtful, loyal, moral, artistically alert and yet, somehow, disastrous of all this country's rulers.
William III & Mary II (Penguin Monarchs)
Title | William III & Mary II (Penguin Monarchs) PDF eBook |
Author | Jonathan Keates |
Publisher | Penguin UK |
Pages | 107 |
Release | 2015-04-30 |
Genre | Biography & Autobiography |
ISBN | 0141976888 |
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.
Elizabeth II (Penguin Monarchs)
Title | Elizabeth II (Penguin Monarchs) PDF eBook |
Author | Douglas Hurd |
Publisher | Penguin UK |
Pages | 160 |
Release | 2015-08-27 |
Genre | Biography & Autobiography |
ISBN | 0141979429 |
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
George II (Penguin Monarchs)
Title | George II (Penguin Monarchs) PDF eBook |
Author | Norman Davies |
Publisher | Penguin UK |
Pages | 201 |
Release | 2021-05-27 |
Genre | Biography & Autobiography |
ISBN | 0141978430 |
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.