James IV is the best-known of all the late medieval Scottish rulers. Widely praised by his contemporaries, he combined the qualities of successful medieval monarch with a wide interest in the arts and sciences, while remaining acutely conscious of the need to enhance the prestige of his dynasty throughout Europe. This excellent study examines all aspects of James IV's sovereignty, explains his popularity and his highly successful kingship and assesses reasons for the disastrous end to the reign when the king and a large population of the Scottish nobility were eliminated in a single afternoon in 1513 at Flodden. This book represents Scottish historical research at its very best. It is meticulously researched and sensitively written.

Conditioned by a childhood surrounded by the rivalries of the Stewart family, and by eighteen years of enforced exile in England, James I was to prove a king very different from his elderly and conservative forerunners. This major study draws on a wide range of sources, assessing James I's impact on his kingdom. Michael Brown examines James's creation of a new, prestigious monarchy based on a series of bloody victories over his rivals and symbolised by lavish spending at court. He concludes that, despite the apparent power and glamour, James I's 'golden age' had shallow roots; after a life of drastically swinging fortunes, James I was to meet his end in a violent coup, a victim of his own methods. But whether as lawgiver, tyrant or martyr, James I has cast a long shadow over the history of Scotland.

Behind the scenes of the private world at the heart of royalty, as revealed by a distinguished royal commentator. This is the real story of what goes on inside the royal palaces, as witnessed by members of the royal staff and household past and present. Buckingham Palace is effectively an independent kingdom with its own rules and customs, now explained by Brian Hoey. Hundreds of anecdotes reveal the conditions in which the staff live and work and also their relationship with the Royals they serve. How does one get a job as personal footman to the Queen? Why does Prince Charles still have to send a note to her Page of the Backstairs requesting a meeting with his mother? How much do members of the household earn? Why does the Queen hate men in three-piece suits? Why are the Queen's bedsheets six inches longer than Prince Philip's? Why do her maids have to vacuum walking backwards? Why doesn't the Queen allow square ice-cubes to be put in her drinks?

In 1930s Luang Prabang, the beautiful and demure Kham-Phiou was much admired. On a New Year's Day, the life of the aristocratic young woman changed when she caught the eye of a sophisticated older man - Prince Souvanna Phouma. The prince fell madly in love with Kham-Phiou and was determined to marry her against all odds. His family wanted a marriage within the dynasty, while her widowed mother feared Palace intrigues. After the wedding, life in the prince's family home was difficult, but Kham-Phiou began to adapt until the prince decided they should move to Vientiane for the sake of his career. The tale of the tragic love story spans over half a century and is set against the little-known backdrop of old-world Laos where ancient customs and superstitions still held sway. In this charming and moving personal account incorporating the social history of Laos, Manisamouth, granddaughter of Kham-Phiou, brings her grandmother's untold story to life, accompanied by evocative black and white photographs, family trees of the Luang Prabang Royals and Kham-Phiou's lineage, and includes a section on Lao history.

Eleanor of Castile, the remarkable woman behind England's greatest medieval king, Edward I, has been effectively airbrushed from history; yet she had one of the most fascinating lives of any of England's queens. Her childhood was spent in the centre of the Spanish reconquest and was dominated by her military hero of a father (St Ferdinand) and her prodigiously clever brother (King Alfonso X the Learned). Married at the age of twelve and a mother at thirteen, she gave birth to at least sixteen children, most of whom died young. She was a prisoner for a year amid a civil war in which her husband's life was in acute danger. Devoted to Edward, she accompanied him everywhere. All in all, she was to live for extended periods in five different countries. Eleanor was a highly dynamic, forceful personality who acted as part of Edward's innermost circle of advisers, and successfully accumulated a vast property empire for the English Crown. In cultural terms her influence in architecture and design - and even gardening - can be discerned to this day, while her idealised image still speaks to us from Edward's beautiful memorials to her, the Eleanor crosses. This book reveals her untold story.

A personal account of the life and character of Britain's longest-reigning monarch __________ This intimate, personal biography of Queen Elizabeth II tells the story of her remarkable life, reign and times, from a perspective unlike any other. Gyles Brandreth writes the Queen's tale candidly with grace and sensitivity from the view of someone who met her, talked with her and kept a record of those conversations. Brandreth knew the Queen's husband well and knows the new King and Queen Consort. Told with authority, a refreshing dose of humour and moving honesty from a totally unique viewpoint, Elizabeth: An Intimate Portrait is the must-have biography of the longest-serving monarch in English history, of a woman who represented not only her people but stood as an emblem of fortitude and resilience worldwide throughout her long life. Elizabeth II - what was she really like? What made her the person she was? By GYLES BRANDRETH: 'The writer who got closest to the human truth about our long-serving senior royals.' Libby Purves, THE TIMES __________

Henry III (1207-72) reigned for 56 years, the longest-serving English monarch until the modern era. Although knighted by William Marshal, he was no warrior king like his uncle Richard the Lionheart. He preferred to feed the poor to making war and would rather spend time with his wife and children than dally with mistresses and lord over roundtables. He sought to replace the dull projection of power imported by his Norman predecessors with a more humane and open-hearted monarchy. But his ambition led him to embark on bold foreign policy initiatives to win back the lands and prestige lost by his father King John. This set him at odds with his increasingly insular barons and clergy, now emboldened by the protections of Magna Carta. In one of the great political duels of history, Henry struggled to retain the power and authority of the crown against radical reformers like Simon de Montfort. He emerged victorious, but at a cost both to the kingdom and his reputation among historians. Yet his long rule also saw extraordinary advancements in politics and the arts, from the rise of the parliamentary state and universities to the great cathedrals of the land, including Henry's own enduring achievement, Westminster Abbey.

A "NEW YORK TIMES" EDITORS' CHOICE
Deborah Mitford, Duchess of Devonshire, is the youngest of the famously witty brood that includes the writers Jessica and Nancy. "Wait for Me! "chronicles her remarkable life, from an eccentric but happy childhood roaming the Oxfordshire countryside, to tea with her sister Unity and Adolf Hitler in 1937, to her marriage to Andrew Cavendish, the second son of the Duke of Devonshire. Written with intense warmth, charm, and perception, "Wait for Me!" is a unique portrait of an age of tumult, splendor, and change. "Touching . . . moving . . . [and] compelling as a portrait of a vanishing world" ("The Wall Street Journal").

Kate Middleton is the girl everyone wants to be.

Catherine Elizabeth "Kate" Middleton is living a perfect Cinderella fairy tale. She is engaged to Britain's most desirable bachelor--and now she's the future queen of England

Academically gifted and sophisticated beyond her years, this dark-haired beauty possesses the natural poise and impeccable breeding necessary for the wife-to-be of the heir to the throne. She has charmed Prince William and his circle and captivated the entire House of Windsor. Yet there is a history behind her polished veneer that would surprise any royal court observer--an extraordinary, inspiring, and deeply moving tale of an impoverished working-class family that overcame deprivation and adversity to rise to the upper echelons of British society.

Based on exclusive and intimate interviews with Kate's closest friends and relatives, and illustrated throughout with photographs, many published here for the very first time, Claudia Joseph's Kate: The Making of a Princess is a fascinating portrait of the extraordinary young woman who will be queen--and the story of a family's remarkable journey from the mining villages of Durham to an apartment in the royal residence of Clarence House.

King of Britain for sixty years and the last king of what would become the United States, George III inspired both hatred and loyalty and is now best known for two reasons: as a villainous tyrant for America's Founding Fathers, and for his madness, both of which have been portrayed on stage and screen. In this concise and penetrating biography, Jeremy Black turns away from the image-making and back to the archives, and instead locates George's life within his age: as a king who faced the loss of key colonies, rebellion in Ireland, insurrection in London, constitutional crisis in Britain and an existential threat from Revolutionary France as part of modern Britain's longest period of war. Black shows how George III rose to these challenges with fortitude and helped settle parliamentary monarchy as an effective governmental system, eventually becoming the most popular monarch for well over a century. He also shows us a talented and curious individual, committed to music, art, architecture and science, who took the duties of monarchy seriously, from reviewing death penalties to trying to control his often wayward children even as his own mental health failed, and became Britain's longest reigning king.

"An excellent, all-embracing new biography."--"The New York Times"
From the moment of her ascension to the throne at age twenty-five, Queen Elizabeth II has been the object of unparalleled admiration and scrutiny. But through the fog of glamour and gossip, how well do we really know the world's most famous monarch? Drawing on numerous interviews and never-before-revealed documents, acclaimed biographer Sally Bedell Smith pulls back the curtain to show in extraordinary detail the public and private lives of one of the world's most fascinating and enigmatic women. In "Elizabeth the Queen, "we meet the young girl who suddenly becomes "heiress presumptive"when her uncle abdicates the throne. We see the young Queen struggling to balance the demands of her job with her role as the mother of two young children. And we gain insight into the Queen's daily routines, as well as her personal relationships: with Prince Philip, her husband of sixty-four years and the love of her life, her children and their often-disastrous marriages, her grandchildren and friends.
Scrupulously researched and compulsively readable, "Elizabeth the Queen "is a close-up view of the lively, brilliant, and steadfast woman we've known only from a distance, and a captivating window into life at the center of the last great monarchy.
"NEW YORK TIMES "BESTSELLER
" An] imposing, yet nimbly written, biography that] dwarfs the field . . . a most satisfying and enjoyable read, one to be savored at length."--Minneapolis "Star Tribune"

It is the tragedy of Queen Mary that today, 450 years after her death, she remains the most hated, least understood monarch in English history--remembered best for burning hundreds of Protestant heretics at the stake. Linda Porter's pioneering new biography cuts through the myths to reveal the truth about the first queen to rule England in her own right. Daughter of Henry VIII and Katherine of Aragon, Mary Tudor was a cultured Renaissance princess who was brought to the throne by an audacious coup. She made a grand marriage to Philip of Spain, but her attempts to revitalize England at home and abroad were cut short by her early death at the age of forty-two. The first popular biography of Mary in thirty years, "The Myth of "Bloody Mary"" offers a fascinating, controversial look at this much-maligned queen.

Tender, moving, heartfelt and warm (and sporadically scandalous and outrageous too), these are the private messages between people in love. Yet they are also correspondence between the rulers of nations. From Henry VIII's lovelorn notes to Anne Boleyn and George IV's impassioned notes to his secret wife, to Queen Victoria's tender letters to Prince Albert and Edward VIII's extraordinary correspondence with Wallis Simpson - these letters depict romantic love from its budding passion to the comfort and understanding of a long union (and occasionally beyond to resentment and recrimination), all set against the background of great affairs of state, wars and the strictures of royal duty. Here is a chance to glimpse behind the pomp and ceremony, the carefully curated images of royal splendour and decorum, to see the passions, hopes, jealousies and loneliness of kings and queens throughout history. By turns tender, moving, heartfelt and warm (and sporadically scandalous and outrageous too), these are the private messages between people in love. Yet they are also correspondence between the rulers of nations, whose actions (and passions) changed the course of history, for good and bad. This morning I received your dear, dear letter of the 21st. How happy do you make me with your love! Oh! my Angel Albert, I am quite enchanted with it! I do not deserve such love! Never, never did I think I could be loved so much. Queen Victoria to Prince Albert (28 November 1839)

"We grew up with the same parents in the same castle, but in many ways we each had a moat around us. Sometimes when visitors came they would say, "You are such lucky children; it's a fairytale life you live." And I knew they were right, it was a fairytale upbringing. But fairy tales are dark and I had no way of telling either a stranger or a friend what was going on; the abnormal became ordinary."

""

Liza Campbell was the last child to be born at the impressive and renowned Cawdor Castle, the family seat of the Campbells, as featured in Shakespeare's "Macbeth," Liza's father Hugh, the twenty-fifth Thane, inherited dashing good looks, brains, immense wealth, an ancient and revered title, three stately homes, and 100,000 acres of land. "A Charmed Life" tells the story of Liza's idyllic childhood with her four siblings in Wales in the 1960s, until Hugh inherited Cawdor Castle and moved his family up to the Scottish Highlands. It was at the historical ancestral home that the fairytale began to resemble a nightmare.

Increasingly overwhelmed by his enormous responsibilities, Hugh tipped into madness fuelled by drink, drugs, and extramarital affairs. Over the years, the castle was transformed into an arena of reckless extravagance and terrifying domestic violence, leading to the abrupt termination of a legacy that had been passed down through the family for six hundred years.

Written with a sharp wit, "A Charmed Life" is a contemporary fairytale that tells what is like to grow up as a maiden in a castle where ancient curses and grisly events from centuries ago live on between its stone walls. Painstakingly honest and thoroughly entertaining, LizaCampbell offers a compelling look at what it is like to grow up with enormous privilege and yet watch the father she idealizes destroy himself, his family, and his heritage.

Praise for A CHARMED LIFE:

"Beautifully written...eminently readable...A memoir which has many elements to identify with--even if you ain't no Lady." --Tama Janowitz, author of "Slaves of New York" and "Area Code 212"

"Campbell tells the wild, sorry tale with a sharp, offhand wit." --" Sunday Times "(UK)
"She writes not from catharsis or revenge, but in the spirit of puzzlement and discovery...Completely compelling." --" Daily Telegraph "(UK)
"A gripping page turner...A CHARMED LIFE is a great title, and Liza Campbell's book lives up to it." --" Daily Mail "(UK)

"A modern tragedy ... Written with great courage ... A stark tale of profligacy and injustice." --" Country Life "(UK)

"A very powerful, painful story...I have never read such a compelling study of addiction...An exceptional writer." --" Mail on Sunday "(UK)
"This is a sad book; yet Campbell's lack of sentimentality and needle-sharp wit make for a guiltily voyeuristic read." -" Independent "(UK)""

"A memoir that is as free of self-pity as it is of sentimentality ... Poignant."

-"Scotsman "(UK)

"As a prose stylist, Liza is comparable to Nancy Astor: wry, deadpan, whimsical." -- "The Sunday Telegraph" (UK)

For fans of Alison Weir and Antonia Fraser, acclaimed author Nancy Goldstone's thrilling history of the royal daughters who succeeded in ruling--and shaping--thirteenth-century Europe
Set against the backdrop of the thirteenth century, a time of chivalry and crusades, troubadors, knights and monarchs, "Four Queens" is the story of four provocative sisters--Marguerite, Eleanor, Sanchia, and Beatrice of Provence--who rose from near obscurity to become the most coveted and powerful women in Europe. Each sister in this extraordinary family was beautiful, cultured, and accomplished but what made these women so remarkable was that each became queen of a principal European power--France, England, Germany and Sicily. During their reigns, they exercised considerable political authority, raised armies, intervened diplomatically and helped redraw the map of Europe. Theirs is a drama of courage, sagacity and ambition that re-examines the concept of leadership in the Middle Ages.

Diana The Voice of Change throws a new light on the most famous woman of her time. Discover the truth about Diana s extraordinary life principles. Learn what created her love and the secret keys that focused her destiny. You can use these same keys to focus your own destiny, to help you find the voice of change that resonates with your whole being, and assists you to live your soul s purpose. This is the legacy that Diana wanted to give the women and men of the world! Learn: how Diana achieved freedom from oppression how she became a force of liberation that literally shook the world why she was taken from us to become a force of Divine Inspiration. Although Diana may no longer be in flesh, her spirit lives on communicating to us all. If you've wondered how Diana Princess of Wales developed the courage and power to bring about vast change in her life and that of the Royal Family, you can find out right here. If you would like to discover where Diana's love, hope and radiance came from, those essential qualities that helped to heal the colossal challenges she faced, and then moved her to become the Global Super Star, the information is within Stewart's extraordinary book "DIANA THE VOICE OF CHANGE". If you were startled by Diana's beauty and essence this book will reveal the key principles and empowerments that gave her the ability to express the wonder and awe that you so admired and still hear about - this book could even be an answer to some of your challenges!

An engrossing, unadulterated biography of "Bloody Mary"-elder daughter of Henry VIII, Catholic zealot, and England's first reigning Queen Mary Tudor was the first woman to inherit the throne of England. Reigning through one of Britain's stormiest eras, she earned the nickname "Bloody Mary" for her violent religious persecutions. She was born a princess, the daughter of Henry VIII and the Spanish Katherine of Aragon. Yet in the wake of Henry's break with Rome, Mary, a devout Catholic, was declared illegitimate and was disinherited. She refused to accept her new status or to recognize Henry's new wife, Anne Boleyn, as queen. She faced imprisonment and even death. Mary successfully fought to reclaim her rightful place in the Tudor line, but her coronation would not end her struggles. She flouted fierce opposition in marrying Philip of Spain, sought to restore England to the Catholic faith, and burned hundreds of dissenters at the stake. But beneath her hard exterior was a woman whose private traumas of phantom pregnancies, debilitating illnesses, and unrequited love played out in the public glare of the fickle court. Though often overshadowed by her long-reigning sister, Elizabeth I, Mary Tudor was a complex figure of immense courage, determination, and humanity-and a political pioneer who proved that a woman could rule with all the power of her male predecessors.

Described as 'greedy and grasping, and raised from nothing', the Woodviles have had a bad press. This book investigates the family origins, and explains the rise and fall of the senior branch from 'baron' to gentry, and how, in the early fifteenth century the wheel of fortune turned dramatically in favour of the junior branch in Northamptonshire, who rose to the highest level of society. Sir Richard Woodvile was placed in the service of John, Duke of Bedford at his court in Rouen. When the duke died he then secretly married his widow Jacquetta, and in 1464 their daughter Elizabeth made an extraordinary marriage to the young king, Edward IV. This move attracted criticism at the time and resulted in a period of slander which continues to this day: was the Woodviles 'blackened reputation' the result of a concerted campaign by one man, Richard, Earl of Warwick, who was jealous of the Woodviles and eager to retrieve his position as kingmaker.

At the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939, the British government, alarmed at the Duke and Duchess of Windsor's association with the Nazis and the possibility that they would remove themselves to the United States to preach their pacifist (and slightly pro-German) credo, decided that a job had to be found for the ex-King Edward VIII. and his wife, the American, Wallis Simpson. He was appointed Governor of The Bahamas, one of the smallest and least important possessions of the British Empire, far away from the scene of battle.

Away from their sybaritic living in the south of France, the couple struggled unhappily with the very different lifestyle of minor colonial life. This story is of their successes and their failures during their last official service to The British--and of the only Royal Governor to have served in British colonial history.

From the moment of her birth to her death on the scaffold, Mary Stuart spent her life embroiled in power struggles that shook the foundations of Renaissance Europe. Revered by some as the rightful Queen of England, reviled by others as a murderous adultress, her long and fascinating rivalry with her cousin Elizabeth I led ultimately to her downfall. This classic biography, by one of the most popular writers of the twentieth century, breathes life into the character of one of history's most remarkable women, and turns her tale into a story of passion and plotting as gripping as any novel.