David Starkey

From one of our finest historians comes an outstanding exploration of the British monarchy from the retreat of the Romans up until the modern day....

The crown of England is the oldest surviving political institution in Europe....

This is the first of three volumes, which will form a new, ground-breaking history of England as told through the lives of its Kings and Queens.

An abused child, yet confident of her destiny to reign, a woman in a man's world, passionately sexual yet, she said, a virgin, Elizabeth I was to be famed as England's most successful ruler....

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....