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Books > Biography > Royalty
Not many people would claim to be saints, or alternatively,
consider themselves entirely without redeeming qualities. Some are
unquestionably worse than others, but few have been held in greater
infamy than Richard Plantagenet, afterwards Duke of Gloucester and,
later still, King Richard III. Richard's character has been
besmirched as often as it has been defended, and the arguments
between his detractors and supporters still rage after several
centuries. Was he a ruthless hunchback who butchered his way to the
throne, a paragon of virtue who became a victim of Tudor
propaganda, or (as seems more likely) something in between? Some
would argue that a true biography is impossible because the letters
and other personal documents required for this purpose are simply
not available; but David Baldwin has overcome this through an
in-depth study of Richard's dealings with his contemporaries and of
information gleaned from the recent discovery of his skeleton.
Tracking Richard's journey from birth to death, this new edition is
brought right up to date with an exploration of the latest
scientific discoveries and an account of the king's reburial in
Leicester Cathedral. The fundamental question David Baldwin has
answered is 'what was Richard III really like'.
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.
The purpose of this book is to give, not only a portrait and a
description of the birds, but a summing up of the beneficial and
injurious habits of each, gained from the highest authorities
obtainable. The book is intended for those who long to know birds
intimately and intelligently, and wish to belong to the great army
of bird-students who are "doing their bit" to preserve the
bird-life of our country.
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