Publishers Weekly called Katherine the Queen “Rich, perceptive, and creative.” In Royal Renegades, Porter examines the turbulent lives of the children of Charles I and the English Civil Wars. The fact that the English Civil War led to the execution of King Charles I in January 1649 is well known, as is the restoration of his eldest son as Charles II eleven years later. But what happened to the king’s six surviving children is far less familiar. Casting new light on the heirs of the doomed king, acclaimed historian Linda Porter brings to life their personalities, legacies, and rivalries for the first time. As their family life was shattered by war, Elizabeth and Henry were used as pawns in the parliamentary campaign against their father; Mary, the Princess Royal, was whisked away to the Netherlands as the child bride of the Prince of Orange; Henriette, Anne’s governess, escaped with the king’s youngest child to France where she eventually married the cruel and flamboyant Philippe d’Orleans. When their "dark and ugly" brother Charles eventually succeeded his father to the English throne after fourteen years of wandering, he promptly enacted a vengeful punishment on those who had spurned his family, with his brother James firmly in his shadow. A tale of love and endurance, of battles and flight, of educations disrupted, the lonely death of a young princess and the wearisome experience of exile, Royal Renegades charts the fascinating story of the children of loving parents who could not protect them from the consequences of their own failings as monarchs and the forces of upheaval sweeping England.

During the Renaissance, the monarchy became the dominant ruling power in Europe. It was an era of formidable kings and queens who crushed the feudal rights of their nobles, defended the Catholic Church against the encroachments of Protestantism, fought self-aggrandizing wars and were great patrons of art, architecture, literature and music. This work chronicles the lives and reigns of the 42 monarchs in England, Scotland, France, Spain and the Holy Roman Empire between 1400 and 1600, presenting in the context of their era their personalities, accomplishments and failures.

Royal portraits and fast historical facts on rulers from King Athelstan to Queen Elizabeth II. Whether famed like Queen Victoria or a bit more obscure like King Sweyn Forkbeard, this collection tells a story that spans more than a thousand years, showcasing the fifty-nine English monarchs who preceded King Charles. It features portraits from prestigious galleries like the National Portrait Gallery in London, each a beautiful, miniature work of art set in an elegant gilt frame, paired with fascinating details of the monarch’s reign. Perfect for reference, study, or an entertaining browse through history, Monarchs of England makes learning about the English monarchy a visual treat.

Sharman Apt Russell again blends her lush voice and keen scientific eye in this marvelous book about butterflies. From Hindu mythology to Aztec sacrifices, butterflies have served as a metaphor for resurrection and transformation. Even during World War II, children in a Polish death camp scratched hundreds of butterflies onto the walls of their barracks. But as Russell points out in this rich and lyrical meditation, butterflies are above all objects of obsession. From the beastly horned caterpillar, whose blood helps it count time, to the peacock butterfly, with wings that hiss like a snake, Russell traces the butterflies through their life cycles, exploring the creatures' own obsessions with eating, mating, and migrating. In this way, she reveals the logic behind our endless fascination with butterflies as well as the driving passion of such legendary collectors as the tragic Eleanor Glanville, whose children declared her mad because of her compulsive butterfly collecting, and the brilliant Henry Walter Bates, whose collections from the Amazon in 1858 helped develop his theory of mimicry in nature. Russell also takes us inside some of the world's most prestigious natural history museums, where scientists painstakingly catalogue and categorize new species of Lepidoptera, hoping to shed light on insect genetics and evolution. A luminous journey through an exotic world of obsession and strange beauty, this is a book to be treasured by anyone who's ever watched a butterfly mid-flight and thought, as Russell has, "I've entered another dimension."