David Starkey

The monarchy is one of Britain's longest surviving institutions - as well as one of its most tumultuous and revered. In this masterful book, David Starkey looks at the monarchy as a whole, charting its history from Roman times, to the Wars of the Roses, the chaos of the Civil War, the fall of Charles I and Cromwell's emergence as Lord Protector - all the way up until the Victorian era when Britain's monarchs came face-to-face with modernity.

Volume 1: The Early Kings. An in-depth examination of how the English monarchy came into being. This volume covers the retreat of the Romans from Britain in 410 to the fall of the House of Lancaster in the middle of the 15th century. The kings most heavily featured are: Alfred the Great, Canute, Edward the Confessor, William the Conqueror, Henry II, Richard the Lionheart, Henry III and Henry VI.

The crown of England is the oldest surviving political institution in Europe. Dr David Starkey emphasises the Crown's endless capacity to adapt to circumstances and reshape national policy, whilst he unmasks the personalities and achievements, the defeats and victories, which lie behind the kings and queens of British history.