King John ruled England for seventeen and a half years. For most of that time he enjoyed, if not popularity, then great wealth and power. Yet to posterity his entire reign has come to be embodied in a
'Stephen risked being seen as a man who never quite transcended the essential flawed-ness of his claim to be king. His actions betrayed uneasiness in his new skin'Remembered as a time in which 'Christ
'To provide splendid settings for their displays of majesty, kings had great halls built, and none more so than Rufus'William II, or William Rufus, son and successor to William the Conqueror, is most
'Here is the English sovereign as a crusader, battling on the fringes of the known world; the warrior-king ... imbued with the heart of a lion'Even within his own lifetime Richard I, dubbed the 'Lionh
The acclaimed Penguin Monarchs series: short, fresh, expert accounts of England's rulers - now in paperback'After my death', George V said of his eldest son and heir, 'the boy will ruin himself in 12
The acclaimed Penguin Monarchs series: short, fresh, expert accounts of England's rulers - now in paperback Charles II has always been one of the most instantly recognisable British kings - both in h
The acclaimed Penguin Monarchs series: short, fresh, expert accounts of England's rulers - now in paperbackEdward III ruled England for fifty years. He was a paragon of kingship in the eyes of his con
The formation of England happened against the odds—the division of the country into rival kingdoms, the assaults of the Vikings, the precarious position of the island on the edge of the known wo
The acclaimed Penguin Monarchs series: short, fresh, expert accounts of England's rulers - now in paperbackRichard II (1377-99) came to the throne as a child, following the long, domineering, martial
The acclaimed Penguin Monarchs series: short, fresh, expert accounts of England's rulers - now in paperbackHenry V's invasion of France, in August 1415, represented a huge gamble. As heir to the thron
The acclaimed Penguin Monarchs series: short, fresh, expert accounts of England's rulers - now in paperbackElizabeth II is the longest-serving monarch who ever sat on the English or British throne. Ye
The acclaimed Penguin Monarchs series: short, fresh, expert accounts of England's rulers - now in paperbackLike his mother Queen Victoria, Edward VII defined an era. Both reflected the personalities o
The youngest of William the Conqueror's sons, Henry I (1100-35) was never meant to be king, but he was destined to become one of the greatest of all medieval monarchs, both through his own ruthlessnes
The acclaimed Penguin Monarchs series: short, fresh, expert accounts of England's rulers - now in paperbackQueen Victoria inherited the throne at 18 and went on to become the longest-reigning female m
The acclaimed Penguin Monarchs series: short, fresh, expert accounts of England's rulers - now in paperbackHenry VIII's reign transformed the physical and spiritual landscape of England. Magnificent,
The acclaimed Penguin Monarchs series: short, fresh, expert accounts of England's rulers - now in paperbackHenry II (1154-89) through a series of astonishing dynastic coups became the ruler of an enor
The acclaimed Penguin Monarchs series: short, fresh, expert accounts of England's rulers - now in paperbackWilliam III (1689-1702) & Mary II (1689-94) (Britain's only ever 'joint monarchs') changed th
The acclaimed Penguin Monarchs series: short, fresh, expert accounts of England's rulers - now in paperbackThe tragedy of Charles I dominates one of the most strange and painful periods in British his
The acclaimed Penguin Monarchs series: short, fresh, expert accounts of England's rulers - now in paperbackEdward VI, the only son of Henry VIII, became king at the age of nine and died wholly unexpec
The acclaimed Penguin Monarchs series: short, fresh, expert accounts of England's rulers - now in paperbackIf Ethelred was notoriously 'Unready' and Alfred 'Great', King George VI should bear the desi
The acclaimed Penguin Monarchs series: short, fresh, expert accounts of England's rulers - now in paperbackFor a man with such conventional tastes and views, George V had a revolutionary impact. Almos
George I was not the most charismatic of the Hanoverian monarchs to have reigned in England but he was probably the most important. He was certainly the luckiest. Born the youngest son of a landles
Known as 'the anarchy', the reign of Stephen (1135-1141) saw England plunged into a civil war that illuminated the fatal flaw in the powerful Norman monarchy, that without clear rules ordering success
William II (1087-1100), or William Rufus, will always be most famous for his death: killed by an arrow while out hunting, perhaps through accident or perhaps murder. But, as John Gillingham makes clea
Britain's only ever "joint monarchs"William III (1689-1702) & Mary II (1689-94) changed the course of the entire country's history, coming to power through a coup (which invo
The short, action-packed reign of James II (1685-88) is generally seen as one of the most catastrophic in British history. James managed, despite having access to tremendous reserves of good will and
Henry II (1154-89) through a series of astonishing dynastic coups became the ruler of an enormous European empire. One of the most dynamic, restless and clever men ever to rule England, he was brought
Part of the Penguin Monarchs series: short, fresh, expert accounts of England's rulers in a collectible format Queen Victoria inherited the throne at 18 and went on to become the longest-reigning fema
Part of the Penguin Monarchs series: short, fresh, expert accounts of England's rulers in a collectible format.The cultural richness of the reign of Edward the Confessor marks the high point of Anglo-
