Deborah Cadbury draws on new research, personal accounts from the royal archives, and other never-before-revealed sources to create a dazzling sequel to The King’s Speech and tell the true and thrilling drama of Great Britain at war and of a staggering transformation for its monarchy.
From one of our finest historians comes an outstanding exploration of the British monarchy from the retreat of the Romans up until the modern day. This compendium volume of two earlier books is fully revised and updated. The monarchy is one of Britain's longest surviving institutions -- as well as one of its most tumultuous and revered. In this masterful book, David Starkey looks at the monarchy as a whole, charting its magnificent history from Roman times, to the Wars of the Roses, the chaos of the Civil War, the fall of Charles I and Cromwell's emergence as Lord Protector -- all the way up until the Victorian era when Britain's monarchs came face-to-face with modernity.
Contested Monarchy reappraises the wide-ranging and lasting transformation of the Roman monarchy between the Principate and Late Antiquity. The book takes as its focus the century from Diocletian to Theodosius I (284-395), a period during which the stability of monarchical rule depended heavily on the emperor's mobility, on collegial or dynastic rule, and on the military resolution of internal political crises.
Examining the politics of the French Revolutionary tradition during the nineteenth century Bourbon Restoration and early July Monarchy, Robert Alexander argues that political struggle was not confined to the elite. The Restoration Liberal Opposition developed a reform tradition based on legal organization and persuasion, which would prove far more effective in achieving progressive change than the revolutionary tradition of conspiracy and insurrection. Alexander analyzes relations among the Liberal Opposition, ultra-royalists and the state to support his claims.
This thoughtful collection of John Milton’s finest poetry marks the quatercentenary of the poet’s birth in 1608. It is read by several of Britain’s foremost classical actors, including Anton Lesser, Samantha Bond and Derek Jacobi. Milton’s uncompromising views set him firmly on the side of Cromwell, putting his life in danger when the Stuart monarchy was restored. But he is now remembered for Paradise Lost and a strong collection of other poetry which influenced successive generations.
