To celebrate the beginning of 1800, Queen Charlotte invites 100 children to Windsor Castle, where England's first Christmas tree, laden with gifts, is the centerpiece. Includes biographical information about Queen Charlotte and a timeline.

This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. To ensure a quality reading experience, this work has been proofread and republished using a format that seamlessly blends the original graphical elements with text in an easy-to-read typeface. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.

Elizabethan England comes alive in all its pomp and pageantry, deadly intrigue and scandal-and fine feasting-in Karen Harper's acclaimed mystery series featuring the young queen, Elizabeth Tudor, as amateur sleuth. An old English Yule has never been merrier or more mysterious. A New Year's celebration has never looked more joyous but been so potentially deadly. Fearing the Twelve Days of Christmas of 1564 may be the last for her ailing, elderly friend, Lady Kat Ashley, Queen Elizabeth decrees a nostalgic, old-fashioned holiday. Delicious dishes for the table, holly and ivy, caroling, wassailing, mumming, and a Lord of Misrule to oversee it all are in the recipe for the revels. But one of the queen's kitchen staff is found as dead as the ornate peacock he was preparing for the feast. As more murders threaten customs, kingdom, and Christmas, Elizabeth and her diverse band of Privy Plot Counselors try desperately to solve the increasingly bizarre crimes. When the Thames freezes over and Londoners take to the ice for an elaborate Frost Fair. Elizabeth of England must outfox the diabolical demon who would kill not only the spirit of Christmas but the queen.

A strange story of a strange country where old superstition still plays a major role. According to this age-old superstition, the Christmas season is a time where both good and evil are at stake. If all goes well, the Christmas Wonder happens once again, and the coming year promises good and bright. But the Christmas demons are on the verge of sabotaging the Christmas Wonder, and instead creating chaos and disaster. Therefore, every year at Christmas time, the dreaded Christmas demons are reassured by sacrifying the most beautiful young woman in the country to them, after she has been celebrated like a movie star as this year's Christmas Queen. The narrator of the story, who is an arrival from a neighbouring country, becomes embroided in an opposition group's attempt to save this year's Christmas Queen from the grim fate that awaits her.

After some forty years on the throne of England to be rehoused on a council estate in the Midlands comes as something of a shock to the Queen. In fact it is a nightmare.

This magnificently illustrated volume, produced in cooperation with BBC Books in London, combines an insightful text by noted historian Shawcross with personal recollections and over 100 remarkable images chronicling the half-century reign of Queen Elizabeth II. Full color and b&w.