In 1863, Queen Victoria decreed that her son Edward, Prince of Wales, should marry Princess Alexandra, daughter of the obscure and unsophisticated heir to the Danish throne.

The beauty, grace and charm of Prince Christian's daughter had prevailed over the Queen's intense dislike of the Danish royal house. Even the embarrassingly difficult Bertie was persuaded to agree to the match.

Thus began the fairy-tale saga of a family that handed on its good looks, unaffectedness and democratic manners to almost every royal house of modern Europe. For, in the year that Alexandra became Princess of Wales, her brother Willie was elected King of the Hellenes; her father at last succeeded to the Danish throne; her sister Dagmar was soon to become wife of the future Tsar Alexander III of Russia; and her youngest sister Thyra later married the de jure King of Hanover.

A Family of Kings is the story of the crowned children and grandchildren of Christian IX and Queen Louise of Denmark, focusing on the half-century before the First World War. It is an intimate, domestic study of a close-knit family, their individual personalities, and the courts to which they came.

Queen. Mother. Servant. Friend. This is the most intimate portrait of our longest serving monarch, an inspiration to her country: Queen Elizabeth II. Get to know the real Elizabeth in the definitive biography from the bestselling British Royal Family writer 'To have any understanding of the Queen you must first read this book' Amanda Foreman 'Emotional, personal, human, insightful and moving. You will be a better person for reading and learning from this book' 5***** Reader Review 'Extensively researched, fluently written and containing a lot of intriguing information. Much to recommend' Daily Telegraph ________ We knew her as the Queen. But she was so much more. Playing with her children at the Palace, crawling on her stomach to stalk deer, donning yellow Marigolds to wash up after Balmoral cookouts; this was Queen Elizabeth going about her daily life. Performing a duty she cherished. Serving a nation she loved. In this, the first all-round, up-close picture of her remarkable life, readers finally get meet the real Queen. With exclusive access to her personal letters, close friends and associates, this intimate biography is a treasure trove of insights on her public persona and private life. In these pages we have the honour of meeting the leader, strategist, and diplomat; the daughter, wife, mother and grandmother - Elizabeth the Queen. ________ 'A phenomenal biography about a truly incredible leader and human being' 5***** Reader Review

On November 6, 1817, died the Princess Charlotte, only child of the Prince Regent, and heir to the crown of England. Her short life had hardly been a happy one. By nature impulsive, capricious, and vehement, she had always longed for liberty; and she had never possessed it. She had been brought up among violent family quarrels, had been early separated from her disreputable and eccentric mother, and handed over to the care of her disreputable and selfish father. When she was seventeen, he decided to marry her off to the Prince of Orange; she, at first, acquiesced; but, suddenly falling in love with Prince Augustus of Prussia, she determined to break off the engagement. This was not her first love affair, for she had previously carried on a clandestine correspondence with a Captain Hess. Prince Augustus was already married, morganatically, but she did not know it, and he did not tell her. While she was spinning out the negotiations with the Prince of Orange, the allied sovereign - it was June, 1814 - arrived in London to celebrate their victory. Among them, in the suite of the Emperor of Russia, was the young and handsome Prince Leopold of Saxe-Coburg. ...] Reprint of the biography of Queen Victoria, originally published in 1921.