General History

David Starkey's 'Monarchy' charts the rise of the British monarchy from the War of the Roses, the English Civil War and the Georgians, right up until the present day monarchs of the 20th Century. With both authority and verve, David Starkey unmasks the personalities and achievements, the defeats and victories, that lie behind the monarchs that form the backbone of British history. This magisterial study begins with the Tudors -- five monarchs who ruled over England and Ireland until the reformation of the 1530s -- and continues with the Stuarts who followed them. It includes Oliver Cromwell, a non monarch, who ruled as Lord Protector, a 'king in all but name', and the Georgians, a dynasty that began with the accession of George I and ended with the death of George IV. Queen Victoria, the longest...