The story behind the most iconic of cars, and the rich, powerful, and eccentric people who own them For generations, people the world over have been intrigued by the magic of the hand-built motor cars created by the world's most skilled craftsmen and women. Their workmanship and world-class engineering made Rolls-Royce the benchmark for quality and excellence, such that the supreme accolade for other products was to be described as the Rolls-Royce of. Ironically, the company that became the symbol of privilege and luxury was founded by a self-taught engineer, Frederick Henry Royce, son of a Lincolnshire farmer, who started working at age 10 to help his widowed mother make ends meet. Obsessed with perfection in every task, he proclaimed that nothing is ever right or good enough, yet he produced the finest motor cars the world had ever seen. Owners range from royalty and billionaires to Hollywood stars and the just plain rich. They share one aim--to own the very best.

The priorities of medieval chroniclers and historians were not those of the modern historian, nor was the way that they gathered, arranged and presented evidence. Yet if we understand how they approached their task, and their assumption of God's immanence in the world, much that they wrote becomes clear. Many of them were men of high intelligence whose interpretation of events sheds clear light on what happened. Christopher Given-Wilson is one of the leading authorities on medieval English historical writing. He examines how medieval writers such as Ranulf Higden and Adam Usk treated chronology and geography, politics and warfare, heroes and villains. He looks at the ways in which chronicles were used during the middle ages, and at how the writing of history changed between the twelfth and fifteenth centuries.

This volume aims to critically examine the bad reputation gained by the Comyns in post-Bruce Scotland. The name "Comyn" has long been associated in Scottish tradition with treachery: the family were involved in the infamous kidnapping of the young Alexaner III in 1257, were accused of treachery against William Wallace at the Battle of Falkirk in 1298, and of betraying Robert Bruce to Edward I of England 1306. This reappraisal of the Comyns' role concludes that the period 1212 to 1314 should be regarded as the "Comyn century" in Scottish history. The book highlights the Comyns' role as pillars of the Scottish monarchy and leaders of the political community of the realm in this formative century. The family's interests and influence extended into every corner of Scotland and their castles controlled key lines of communication, especially in Northern Scotland. It is against this background that Bruce's political ambitions in Scotland and Edward I's attempts to influence Scottish affairs in the late-13th century are set. Comyn dominance of the Scottish political scene adds a new twist to the murder of John Comyn by Robert Bruce in the Greyfriars' Church at Dumfries in 1306, and to the impact of the Battle of Bannockburn (1314) on the power struggle within Scotland. This study of the Comyns intends to help establish the strength of opposition to Robert Bruce at the end of the 13th century. A non-Bruce view of the 13th-century Scottish history.The issue of power politics within Scotland, and between England and Scotland, is a constant central theme.