Royal Bastards
Title | Royal Bastards PDF eBook |
Author | Peter de Vere Beauclerk-Dewar |
Publisher | History PressLtd |
Pages | 286 |
Release | 2008 |
Genre | History |
ISBN | 9780752446684 |
Sex, power, mystery and blood - this fresh approach to the British monarchy recounts gripping, untold stories about their unofficial offspring.
Royal Bastards
Title | Royal Bastards PDF eBook |
Author | Peter Beauclerk-Dewar |
Publisher | The History Press |
Pages | 367 |
Release | 2011-10-24 |
Genre | History |
ISBN | 0752473166 |
Since 1066 when William the Conqueror (alias William the Bastard) took the throne, English and Scottish kings have sired at least 150 children out of wedlock. Many were acknowedged at court and founded dynasties of their own - several of today's dukedoms are descended from them. Others were only acknowledged grudgingly or not at all. In the twentieth century this trend for royals to father illegitimate children continued, but the parentage, while highly probably, has not been officially recognised. This book - split into four sections: Tudor, Stuart, Henoverian and, perhaps most fascinating, Royal Loose Ends - is a genuinely fresh approach to British kings and queens, examining their lives and times through the unfamiliar perspective of their illegitimate children.
Our Magnificent Bastard Tongue
Title | Our Magnificent Bastard Tongue PDF eBook |
Author | John McWhorter |
Publisher | Penguin |
Pages | 258 |
Release | 2009-10-27 |
Genre | Language Arts & Disciplines |
ISBN | 1592404944 |
A survey of the quirks and quandaries of the English language, focusing on our strange and wonderful grammar Why do we say “I am reading a catalog” instead of “I read a catalog”? Why do we say “do” at all? Is the way we speak a reflection of our cultural values? Delving into these provocative topics and more, Our Magnificent Bastard Language distills hundreds of years of fascinating lore into one lively history. Covering such turning points as the little-known Celtic and Welsh influences on English, the impact of the Viking raids and the Norman Conquest, and the Germanic invasions that started it all during the fifth century ad, John McWhorter narrates this colorful evolution with vigor. Drawing on revolutionary genetic and linguistic research as well as a cache of remarkable trivia about the origins of English words and syntax patterns, Our Magnificent Bastard Tongue ultimately demonstrates the arbitrary, maddening nature of English— and its ironic simplicity due to its role as a streamlined lingua franca during the early formation of Britain. This is the book that language aficionados worldwide have been waiting for (and no, it’s not a sin to end a sentence with a preposition).
Apartheid
Title | Apartheid PDF eBook |
Author | Hélène Opperman Lewis |
Publisher | |
Pages | 528 |
Release | 2018-07 |
Genre | Afrikaners |
ISBN | 9780992171902 |
The Royal Bastards of Medieval England
Title | The Royal Bastards of Medieval England PDF eBook |
Author | Chris Given-Wilson |
Publisher | Taylor & Francis |
Pages | 236 |
Release | 2023-12-01 |
Genre | History |
ISBN | 1003813445 |
First published in 1984, The Royal Bastards of Medieval England establishes a list of royal bastards in medieval England, and discusses their roles in the history of the period. The authors describe how gradually the church began to formulate more definite views on sexual and marital customs, with a consequent decline in the status of illegitimate children. By early sixteenth century, however, royal bastards were once again making their way into the peerage. The book charts the lives of these men and women against the background not only of contemporary political developments, but also of changing ideas about morality and family. This book will be of interest to students of history, religion and literature.
Wife to the Bastard
Title | Wife to the Bastard PDF eBook |
Author | Hilda Lewis |
Publisher | The History Press |
Pages | 429 |
Release | 2011-11-30 |
Genre | Fiction |
ISBN | 0752480405 |
Matilda of Flanders, queen to William the Conqueror was beautiful, exquisitely small, clever, with a perfect courtesy trained in the rigid school of medieval manners. But within lay a root of darkness - inheritance, perhaps, of Viking ancestors. Twice, at least, in her lifetime the Viking streak broke through, in vengeance on a faithless lover, in fury wreaked on a rival of the marriage bed. The marriage, though fruitful of so many children, was on her side no match of love. But a passionate loyalty to her husband, an equally passionate ambition, together with her own sense of justice, gave her the will and the skill to dissemble her feelings and to make her the praise of Christendom. No Queen ever wielded so much power as she in the long years she ruled Normandy; before her no woman in England was ever crowned or was known as Queen.
Bastard Countryside
Title | Bastard Countryside PDF eBook |
Author | Robin Friend |
Publisher | |
Pages | 104 |
Release | 2018-12-10 |
Genre | Great Britain |
ISBN | 9781912719044 |
"Bastard Countryside collects together 15 years worth of exploration within the British landscape, dwelling on what Victor Hugo called the ‘bastard countryside’: “somewhat ugly but bizarre, made up of two different natures”. Friend’s large-format colour images scrutinise these inbetween, unkempt, and often surreal marginal areas of the country, highlighting frictions between the pastoral sublime and the discarded, often polluted reality of the present.Starting from a classical landscape tradition, Friend’s meticulous 5x4 photographs are given heightened effect through exaggerations of colour and composition, embodying a friction between British pastoral ideals and present reality. In particular, Friend follows moments in which the expected narrative of the landscape is rudely interrupted: often through leakage, pollution, or the wreckage and containment of nature.In his accompanying essay, writer Robert Macfarlane describes Bastard Countryside as “a vision par excellence of our synthetic ‘modern nature’– produced by assemblage and entanglement rather than purity and distinction”. Contained within Friend’s photographs are “hard questions [...] about what kinds of landscape one might wish either to pass through or to live in; about what versions of ‘modern nature’ might be worth fighting for, and why.” -- Publisher's website.