Born to Isabel and Ferdinand, the Catholic Monarchs whose marriage united the realms of Castile and Aragon, Juana "the Mad" (1479-1555) is one of the most infamous but least studied monarchs of the Renaissance. Conventional accounts of Juana portray her as a sullen woman prone to depression, a jealous wife insanely in love with her husband, and an incompetent queen who was deemed by her father, husband, and son, unable to govern herself much less her kingdoms.

But was Juana truly mad or the victim of manipulative family members who desired to rule in her stead? Drawing upon recent scholarship and years of archival research, author Bethany Aram offers a new vision of Juana's life. After the deaths of three relatives directly in line for the throne, Juana became heir to her parents' realms. As queen, Juana worked tirelessly to assure the succession of her son Charles V to the throne and thereby to establish the Habsburg dynasty in the kingdoms that others managed to govern in her name.

In this part biography, part study of royal authority, Aram rightly asserts that Juana was more complicated than her contemporaries and biographers have portrayed her. Not the frail and unstable woman usually depicted, Juana employed pious practices to defend her own interests as well as those of her children. She emerges as a woman of immense importance in Spanish and European history.

The Tudors are England's most notorious royal family. But, as Leanda de Lisle's gripping new history reveals, they are a family still more extraordinary than the one we thought we knew. The Tudor canon typically starts with the Battle of Bosworth in 1485, before speeding on to Henry VIII and the Reformation. But this leaves out the family's obscure Welsh origins, the ordinary man known as Owen Tudor who would fall (literally) into a Queen's lap--and later her bed. It passes by the courage of Margaret Beaufort, the pregnant thirteen-year-old girl who would help found the Tudor dynasty, and the childhood and painful exile of her son, the future Henry VII. It ignores the fact that the Tudors were shaped by their past--those parts they wished to remember and those they wished to forget. By creating a full family portrait set against the background of this past, de Lisle enables us to see the Tudor dynasty in its own terms, and presents new perspectives and revelations on key figures and events. De Lisle discovers a family dominated by remarkable women doing everything possible to secure its future; shows why the princes in the Tower had to vanish; and reexamines the bloodiness of Mary's reign, Elizabeth's fraught relationships with her cousins, and the true significance of previously overlooked figures. Throughout the Tudor story, Leanda de Lisle emphasizes the supreme importance of achieving peace and stability in a violent and uncertain world, and of protecting and securing the bloodline. Tudor is bristling with religious and political intrigue but at heart is a thrilling story of one family's determined and flamboyant ambition.

Good people, I am come hither to die, and by a law I am condemned to the same. These were the words uttered by the seventeen-year-old Lady Jane Grey as she stood on the scaffold awaiting death on a cold February morning in 1554. Forced onto the throne by the great power players at court, Queen Jane reigned for just thirteen tumultuous days before being imprisoned in the Tower, condemned for high treason and executed. In this dramatic retelling of an often misread tale, historian and researcher Nicola Tallis explores a range of evidence that has never before been used in a biography to sweep away the many myths and reveal the moving, human story of an extraordinarily intelligent, independent and courageous young woman.

The title of Duke of York is traditionally assigned to the second son of the English monarch. But what exactly does a Duke of York do? Across the centuries dukes have served in the armed services on land, at sea and in the air. They have worked as diplomats and ambassadors and been patrons of the arts and sciences. Some have also been given more unusual jobs such as investigating murders, running a national lottery and supervising building at Westminster Abbey. Several have gone on to become king, including Henry VIII, Charles I and George VI. Some have died peacefully in their beds whilst others faced a brutal end. This handsome, case-bound volume containing over 450 meticulously researched pages takes a detailed and entertaining look at how the fourteen holders of the title from 1385 to the present have each sought to redefine the role and at the contribution each has made to the history of the country and the welfare of its people. All proceeds from the sale of this volume shall be donated to the On Course Foundation, a charity of which HRH The Duke of York is patron. Margaret Bolton is a specialist in the late medieval and early modern period with particular focus on the reigns of Richard II and Henry VIII. Her other research interests include the development of medical knowledge in the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries and the relationship between diet and disease in the seventeenth century.

Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree, born Herbert Draper Beerbohm (1852-1917) was a British actor and theatrical manager. He founded the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts in 1904.

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.

Owen Platt's recounting of their escapades in wartime Bahamas is a fascinating insight into a little known aspect of British history.

King Alfred. Everybody knows that he is called "the Great," but few remember why. Forgetfulness is strange, for few men have led lives so full of physical, mental, and spiritual adventure, or influenced in so many ways the lives of people in every part of the globe. The Golden Dragon is his fascinating and moving story, told afresh with the aid of recent archaeological evidence and research in four languages. Alfred's achievements have melted cynicism. Gibbon called him "the greatest of English kings"; Hume, "the greatest man in history." Voltaire declared, "I know not whether there has ever been a man on earth worthier of posterity's respect." When his kingdom was reduced to thirty acres, he fought back with such courage and genius that he expelled the Viking invaders and made possible the saving of Western civilization. His list of accomplishments is amazing: transcendent diplomat, Europe's greatest naval designer, notable architect, law giver, founder of the oldest literary tradition in the Occident, originator of a system of public education, and producer of translations that have endured a thousand years. The author's research led him to the conclusion that the ninth-century English kin was the superior of Charlemagne in almost every respect, and indeed was one of the greatest geniuses Western civilization has ever produced. Alfred's courage, faith, and temperance are enduring examples for modern men.

Life in a castle isn't always a fairytale, as the Duchess of Rutland vividly illustrates in her fascinating, revealing and funny autobiography. When Emma Watkins, the pony-mad daughter of a Welsh farmer, imagined her future, she imagined following in her mother's footsteps to marry a farmer of her own. But then she fell in love with David Manners, having no idea that he was heir to one of the most senior hereditary titles in the land. When David succeeded his father, Emma found herself becoming the chatelaine of Belvoir Castle, ancestral home of the Dukes of Rutland. She had to cope with five boisterous children while faced with a vast estate in desperate need of modernisation and staff who wanted nothing to change - it was a daunting responsibility. Yet with sound advice from the doyenne of duchesses, Duchess 'Debo' of Devonshire, she met each challenge with optimism and gusto, including scaling the castle roof in a storm to unclog a flooding gutter; being caught in her nightdress by mesmerised Texan tourists and disguising herself as a cleaner to watch filming of The Crown. She even took on the castle ghosts . . . At times the problems she faced seemed insoluble yet, with her unstoppable energy and talent for thinking on the hoof, she won through, inspired by the vision and passion of those Rutland duchesses in whose footsteps she trod, and indeed the redoubtable and resourceful women who forged her way, whose homes were not castles but remote farmhouses in the Radnorshire Hills. Vividly written and bursting with insights, The Accidental Duchess will appeal to everyone who has visited a stately home and wondered what it would be like to one day find yourself not only living there, but in charge of its future.

Originally published in 1898. Author: Thomas Carlyle Language: English Keywords: Literature/ History Many of the earliest books, particularly those dating back to the 1900s and before, are now extremely scarce and increasingly expensive. Obscure Press are republishing these classic works in affordable, high quality, modern editions, using the original text and artwork.

The author of this series has made it his special object to confine himself very strictly, even in the most minute details which he records, to historic truth. The narratives are not tales founded upon history, but history itself, without any embellishment or any deviations from the strict truth, so far as it can now be discovered by an attentive examination of the annals written at the time when the events themselves occurred. In writing the narratives, the author has endeavored to avail himself of the best sources of information which this country affords; and though, of course, there must be in these volumes, as in all historical accounts, more or less of imperfection and error, there is no intentional embellishment. Nothing is stated, not even the most minute and apparently imaginary details, without what was deemed good historical authority. The readers, therefore, may rely upon the record as the truth, and nothing but the truth, so far as an honest purpose and a careful examination have been effectual in ascertaining it.

Summary: Frustrations of a single woman and the Napoleonic heir of France that led to their marriage in the most magnificent wedding during the most romantic era of European history
Principals: Emperor Napoleon III; Eugenie de Montijo, Countess of Teba; and her girlhood and lifetime love, the Duke of Sesto
Theme: The ultimate unrequited love story: a woman who tried to commit suicide twice, devastated that the Dukes of Alba and Sesto each preferred her sister. Eugenie reluctantly agreed to marry Napoleon's nephew and emerged as one of the most powerful women in history.
Influence: The Vanderbilts and Astors spent millions copying her in Gilded Age Newport and New York. "It was the strange fate of Eugenie Marie de Montijo...to become known...as one of the greatest beauties of her time, and later...personally influential in European events and destinies of three generations..." (New York Times)
Unique Features: Recipe of original Imperial Wedding cake of 1853; recipe of Marie-Antoinette's favorite pastry
Timeliness: Current projects to rebuild the Tuileries Palace and the Palace of Saint-Cloud, art-filled historic monuments burned in war and terror; the Louvre recently paid $10.7 for one of Eugenie's brooches; Eugenie's items at Metropolitan Museum of Art, N.Y., Louvre, Malmaison; Mexico and Cinco de Mayo; Imperial Wedding with 200,000 people at Notre-Dame Cathedral similar to Charles and Diana's in 1981 and Royal Wedding of 2011.
What other woman:
- Became Regent of France three times?
-Was the last woman to wear all the Crown Jewels of France including a 140.64 carat diamond?
- Lived in the Palaces of the Tuileries, Saint-Cloud, Fontainebleau and Compiegne?
- Used the Palace of Versailles for parties?
- Collected Marie-Antoinette's possessions?
- Used the Petit Trianon for her retreat?
- Was the first muse of French haute couture?
- Inspired Louis Vuitton, Creed, Guerlain, Christofle?
- Made Biarritz a jet-set destination?
- Had Washington Irving, Prosper Merimee and Stendhal as childhood story tellers?
- Belonged to families mentioned in Don Quixote?
- Was bridesmaid to Queen Isabel II of Spain?
- Urged occupation of Mexico and Cochin-China (Vietnam)?
- Forged a lifetime friendship with Queen Victoria?
- Made decisions leading to the Franco-Prussian War and the burning of Paris?
- Fled past 60,000 rioters and survived to age 94?

Hoyt's biography, taking advantage of recent posthumous revelations of a Japanese foreign service diplomat, portrays Hirohito as a man of peace held captive by his role in Japanese society and government . . . "Library Journal

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A successful new book from a topnotch writer . . . "Booklist

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. . . provocative . . . "Kirkus Reviews

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Was Emperor Hirohito to blame for Japan's expansionist military policies--and its atrocities--in World War II? Was he out to make the world his empire? This most extensive biography of the emperor in English challenges portrayals of Hirohito as either an unworldly scientist or a swashbuckling conspirator who tried to conquer the globe with military might. Using sources uncovered as recently as 1991, Hoyt reveals that the emperor was fundamentally a peace-loving man caught in a turbulent period when the Japanese military gained extraordinary power. He became the virtual prisoner of an Imperial system that prevented him from leading his country into an era of peace and prosperity, his boyhood dream. Hoyt's account, backed by a decade of research, details the emperor's repeated attempts to thwart the Imperial Army's headlong drive toward war. Even when defeat was certain, Hoyt maintains, Hirohito had to outmaneuver the army in order to surrender to Allied forces. Only then, in postwar years, did the emperor see his wishes for his country come true.

To help the reader assess the emperor's life, Hoyt begins by examining the years preceding Hirohito's reign. He then focuses on the Manchurian incidents, the struggle for power in Japan, the China war, the global conflict and Japan's role in it, and the country's final capitulation. Critical passages on events preceding and during World War II, supported by the recently released diaries of men close to the emperor, detail the process by which Hirohito increasingly lost power as the army gained control. Turning his attention to the post-war years, Hoyt chronicles Japan's economic growth and the changing role of the emperor in Japanese society. Photographs from Japanese sources enhance the narrative. Hirohito: The Emperor and the Man offers new insight into the motives of a widely misunderstood leader. Hoyt's Hirohito is a quiet man with scholarly leanings; a patriot who loved his country but also admired Western qualities; a monarch who wished to act responsibly at a critical juncture but lacked the authority to do so.

At a time when trust and integrity is at an all time low, the light of Truth still prevails over the dawn of deception. The Bewitchments, enchantments, sorceries and charms may be ever so alluring and attractive until one cannot help but to be inundated by its graces. What human on earth does not desire Knowledge, Power and Prosperity? Who is not hungry for Love and Acceptance; and thirsty for the supernatural? There awaits in the spirit world angelic beings to accompany you on your journey of life into that unknown and intriguing realm; but will they be ministers of darkness ushering you to a darker doom of Bewitchment? Or will they be ministers of light ushering you into a brighter tomorrow? Read this in-depth testimony of a life that was changed from Bewitchment to Enrichment and from Gloom to Glory and make your choice Minister Regina Smith serves as the Minister of Music and is an intercessor at the Works of God's Hands International, where the honorable Elect Lady Bobbie Jones Grayer is Pastor. She was chosen to be a Daughter of God and a teacher of His Word. She has been singing, writing songs and playing for numerous churches and ministries and training choirs since she was 16 years old, and has a passion for the youth. She flows in the Holy Spirit under a prophetic anointing that ushers in the Presence of God. She loves to Worship the Lord her King, and has come to know that worship affects every area of one's life. Therefore if any man or woman will worship the Lord, he/she must worship Him in Spirit and in Truth; for the Father seeketh such to Worship Him. St John 4:23-24

This book presents the fascinating story of Queen Margrete I and her rise to power in Denmark, Norway and Sweden. Her political ambitions culminated in the founding of the Nordic Union in 1397, which had vital impact on the history of Scandinavia for the next centuries. The book analyses the most central sources and gives a vivid picture of medieval society in Denmark during the late Middle Ages. At the same time the book describes the character of this dynamic woman, who is considered as one of the most important rulers in the Middle Ages.
Only a very small part of the literature concerning Scandinavian medieval history has been published in English, and this book gives for the first time foreign readers the opportunity to read about the background to the founding of the Nordic Union. The text is well illustrated.

Francois Eugene, Prince of Savoy (1663-1736) was one of the most prominent and successful military commanders in modern European history. Spanning six decades, Eugene served three Habsburg emperors - Leopold I, Joseph I, and Charles VI. The Prince's fame was secured with his crushing victory against the Ottomans at the Battle of Zenta in 1697, and his reputation only increased afterwards as a military commander and diplomat.

The extraordinary story of an obscure German princess who became one of the most powerful women in history.

Born into a minor noble family, Catherine transformed herself into empress of Russia by sheer determination. For thirty-four years, the government, foreign policy, cultural development and welfare of the Russian people were in her hands. She dealt with domestic rebellion, foreign wars and the tidal wave of political change and violence churned up by the French Revolution.

Robert K. Massie brings an eternally fascinating woman together with her family, friends, ministers, generals, lovers and enemies vividly and triumphantly to life.

History offers few stories richer than that of Catherine the Great, and HBO/Sky Atlantic will be releasing a four-part series starring Helen Mirren as Catherine in the autumn of 2019.

There may not be a more fascinating a historical period than the late fourteenth century in Europe. The Hundred Years' War ravaged the continent, yet gallantry, chivalry, and literary brilliance flourished in the courts of England and elsewhere. It was a world in transition, soon to be replaced by the Renaissance and the Age of Exploration -- and John of Gaunt was its central figure.In today's terms, John of Gaunt was a multibillionaire with a brand name equal to Rockefeller. He fought in the Hundred Years' War, sponsored Chaucer and proto-Protestant religious thinkers, and survived the dramatic Peasants' Revolt, during which his sumptuous London residence was burned to the ground. As head of the Lancastrian branch of the Plantagenet family, Gaunt was the unknowing father of the War of the Roses; after his death, his son usurped the crown from his nephew, Richard II. Gaunt's adventures represent the culture and mores of the Middle Ages as those of few others do, and his death is portrayed in The Last Knight as the end of that enthralling period.

With the flair for narrative and the meticulous research that readers have come to expect, in The Diamond Queen Andrew Marr turns his attention to the monarch - and to the monarchy, chronicling the Queen's pivotal role at the centre of the state, which is largely hidden from the public gaze, and making a strong case for the institution itself. Arranged thematically, rather than chronologically, Marr dissects the Queen's political relationships, crucially those with her Prime Ministers; he examines her role as Head of the Commonwealth, and her deep commitment to that Commonwealth of nations; he looks at the drastic changes in the media since her accession in 1952 and how the monarchy - and the monarch - have had to change and adapt as a result. Indeed he argues that under her watchful eye, the monarchy has been thoroughly modernized and made as fit for purpose in the twenty-first century as it was when she came to the throne and a 'new Elizabethan age' was ushered in.

The first in-depth dual-biography of Elizabeth & Margaret, written by the bestselling royal biographer, Andrew Morton.

They were the closest of sisters and the best of friends.

But when, in a quixotic twist of fate, their uncle Edward VIII decided to abdicate the throne, the dynamic between Elizabeth and Margaret was dramatically altered. Forever more, Margaret would have to curtsey to the sister she called 'Lillibet'. And bow to her wishes.

Elizabeth would always look upon her younger sister's antics with a kind of stoical amusement but Margaret's struggle to find a place and position inside the royal system - and her fraught relationship with its expectations - was often a source of tension. Famously, the Queen had to inform Margaret that the Church and government would not countenance her marrying a divorcee, Group Captain Peter Townsend, forcing Margaret to choose between keeping her title and royal allowances or her divorcee lover.

From the idyll of their cloistered early life, through their hidden wartime lives, into the divergent paths they took following their father's death and Elizabeth's ascension to the throne, this book explores their relationship over the years. Andrew Morton, renowned bestselling author of Diana: Her True Story, offers unique insight into these two drastically different sisters - one resigned to duty and responsibility, the other resistant to it - and the lasting impact they have had on the Crown, the royal family and the way it has adapted to the changing mores of the twentieth century.

As the constitutional importance of the monarchy has declined, the British royal family has forged a new and popular role for itself as patron, promoter, and fund-raiser for the underprivileged and the deserving. This book-the first to study the evolution of the "welfare monarchy"-tells the story of the royal family's charitable and social work from the eighteenth century to the present. Drawing on previously unused material from the Royal Archives, Frank Prochaska shows that the monarchy's welfare work has raised its prestige and reaffirmed its importance at the same time that it has brought vitality and success to a vast range of voluntary activities and charities. Prochaska traces the dynamic alliance that has existed between the crown and British civil society over the last 250 years, examining the royals' charitable activities and the factors that motivated them-from Prince Albert, who had a mission to give the monarchy a new kind of influence and moral authority in a period of diminished political power, to King George V and Queen Mary, who were convinced that the monarchy had to combat bolshevism and socialism, to King George VI and Queen Elizabeth, who tried to create a royal image that would unite the nation. Full of fresh perceptions and novel information (including how much money individual members of the royal family have given away), elegantly written, and handsomely illustrated, the book illuminates the royal family's changing role and the transformation of the idea of nobility.

A BBC History Magazine Book of the Year 'One of the most important books to be written about the Tudors in a generation.' Tracy Borman In this groundbreaking history, Sarah Gristwood reveals the way courtly love made and marred the Tudor dynasty. From Henry VIII declaring himself as the 'loyal and most assured servant' of Anne Boleyn to the poems lavished on Elizabeth I by her suitors, the Tudors re-enacted the roles of devoted lovers and capricious mistresses first laid out in the romances of medieval literature, but now with life-and-death consequences for the protagonists. The Tudors in Love dissects the codes of love, desire and power, unveiling obsessions that have shaped the history of this nation. 'A riveting, pacy page-turner... the Tudors as you've never seen them before.' Alison Weir