Royal Books

Published in November 2009

Britain

The White Horse King: The Life of Alfred the Great by Benjamin Merkle. How a great man came to power during one of the most difficult periods in English history and laid the groundwork for England's triumphs on the global stage.

A Gambling Man: Charles II's Restoration Game by Jenny Uglow. Biography. King Charles II took chances and manipulated his followers. His grand court and colorful sex life were on display, but his true intentions lay hidden.

The Battle of Hastings: The Fall of Anglo-Saxon England by Harriet Harvey Wood. Argues that the Normans' illegal attack destroyed a highly developed civilization, and that King Harold ought to have won the battle and enjoyed a peaceful reign.

The Red Rose and the White: The Wars of the Roses, 1453-1487 by John Sadler. The Wars of the Roses were a series of mini-wars fought between two branches of the Plantagenet royal family, and won by the Tudors. This is a history of the entire dynastic struggle, including the social, economic, religious, political and military aspects.

The Fighting Tudors by David Loades. Examines great battles of the Tudor reigns, royal propaganda, and an isolated dynasty's struggle for survival.

The Royal Pardon: Access to Mercy in Fourteenth-Century England by Helen Lacey. Analyzes the procedures of pardoning and the role of royal mercy at moments of political upheaval. Appendices provide full lists of over 1,000 people who acted as intercessors for mercy, from personal servants of the crown to great nobles of the realm.

Europe

High Society: The Life of Grace Kelly by Donald Spoto. After a whirlwind career, actress Grace Kelly retired at age 26 to marry Monaco's Prince Rainier. This biography is based on never-before-published interviews with Grace and her friends. The author knew Princess Grace personally.

Galerius and the Will of Diocletian by Bill Leadbetter. Studies Roman emperor Diocletian's imperial strategy, wars, religious views and abdication; and the failures and successes of his successor Galerius against the backdrop of Constantine's remorseless drive to power.

The History of the Kingdom of Naples: From the Accession of Charles of Bourbon to the Death of Ferdinand I by Pietro Colletta. History of Naples from 1734 to 1825. The author, a Neapolitan by birth, was involved in many of the most important events of the time. Two-volume set. (Very expensive.)

Queen's Apprentice: Archduchess Elizabeth, Empress Maria, the Habsburgs, and the Holy Roman Empire, 1554-1569 by Joseph F. Patrouch. Recounts the first fifteen years, early education, and marriage negotiations of Empress Maria's daughter Elizabeth. Describes court life, including tournaments, coronations, plays, music, travel.

Alexander the Great: King, Commander and Statesman by N.G.L. Hammond. Biography of a man who changed the face of the world in just 13 years. New paperback edition.

Aphorisms by Napoleon Bonaparte. Writer Honoré de Balzac collected Napoleon's most notable maxims: Machiavellian, cynical, dry, and even cruel.

Asia

The Royal Palaces of Korea: Six Centuries of Dynastic Grandeur by Yong-Hun Sin, translated by John Huston.

A Dragon's Head and a Serpent's Tail: Ming China and the First Great East Asian War, 1592-1598 by Kenneth M. Swope. Japanese troops invaded Korea in May of 1592, and Korea's appeal to China's Emperor Wanli for assistance triggered a six-year war encompassing the whole region.

The Samurai Capture a King - Okinawa 1609 by Stephen Turnbull. The Shimazu clan raid on the kingdom of Rykkyu (modern Okinawa, Japan) in 1609 is one of the most extraordinary episodes in samurai history. This is a blow-by-blow account of the operation, including the spectacular kidnapping of the king of Rykkyu. Includes specially commissioned artwork.

Other

Three Kings: The Rise of an American Empire in the Middle East After World War II by Lloyd C. Gardner. The story of the U.S. scramble for influence, oil, and a military presence based on generous aid to shaky regimes in Saudi Arabia, Iran, Egypt, and Iraq.

The Two Eyes of the Earth: Art and Ritual of Kingship Between Rome and Sasanian Iran by Matthew P. Canepa. Roman and Persian sovereigns shared an ideal of sacred kingship that fostered cross-cultural exchange despite their rivalry.

The Development of Royal Funerary Cult at Abydos: Two Funerary Enclosures From the Reign of Aha by Laurel Bestock. This study documents the excavation of two temples and sets them within the framework of the rise of Egyptian kingship, examining royal mortuary practice around 3000 B.C.

Fiction

The Rage of Achilles by Terence Hawkins. This novelization of The Iliad tells the story of four kings, two princes, a beautiful queen, and the warriors who will die for them.

Published in October 2009

Europe

The Impossible Bourbons: Europe's Most Ambitious Dynasty by Oliver Thomson. Traces the rise of the family that won the the crowns first of France, then Spain and finally Naples and Sicily, including the Spanish Bourbons right up to the present day King Juan Carlos.

The King's Other Body: Maria of Castile and the Crown of Aragon by Theresa Earenfight. Queen María of Castile, wife of Alfonso V of Aragon, governed Catalunya in the mid-15th century with powers equivalent to the king's. This book is both a biography and an analysis of her political partnership with her husband.

Reindeer With King Gustaf: What to Expect When Your Spouse Wins the Nobel Prize by Anita Laughlin. Author's humorous account of what she experienced when her husband won the Nobel Prize in physics, including an intimate dinner with the king of Sweden.

Traumatic Politics: The Deputies and the King in the Early French Revolution by Barry M. Shapiro. Contends that the manner in which members of the Constituent Assembly dealt with the king bears the imprint of behavior that typically follows traumatic events.

Britain

The Queen Mother by William Shawcross. The official biography of Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother: consort of King George VI, mother of Queen Elizabeth II, based on unrestricted access to her personal papers, letters, and diaries.

Boudica and Her Stories: Narrative Transformations of a Warrior Queen by Carolyn D. Lyle. A few ancient texts provided the source material for all subsequent accounts of the seventh-century British queen Boudica and her rebellion against the Romans.

1536: The Year That Changed Henry VIII by Suzannah Lipscomb. In 1536, Henry met many failures -- physical, personal, and political -- and emerged a different man who transformed his nation.

Lady Jane Grey: A Tudor Mystery by Eric Ives. This biography depicts Lady Jane as a forceful, educated individual; analyzes her writings; and demonstrates that Edward VI's will gave Jane strong legal grounds for her claim to the English throne.

The Sisters Who Would Be Queen: Mary, Katherine, and Lady Jane Grey - A Tudor Tragedy by Leanda de Lisle. Remembered as the "Nine Days Queen," Lady Jane Grey was no mere victim, but a rebellious teen who became a leader. Her younger sisters became heirs and rivals to Queen Mary and Elizabeth I.

Middle East

Inside the Kingdom: Kings, Clerics, Modernists, Terrorists, and the Struggle for Saudi Arabia by Robert Lacey. How the 1970s oil boom produced a society at war with itself. (This is a new book, not a revision of Lacey's 1981 book about Saudi Arabia, The Kingdom.)

Assyrian Palace Sculptures by Paul Collins, photos by Lisa Baylis and Sandra Marshall. Between the 9th and 7th centuries BC, the kingdom of Assyria in northern Iraq dominated the region from Egypt to Iran. Assyrian palace walls were lined with huge carved panels of alabaster depicting kings. This book presents photos of the British Museum's collection of Assyrian sculptures. Includes a brief history of Assyria and the royal palaces.

Asia

The Poison King: The Life and Legend of Mithradates, Rome's Deadliest Enemy by Adrienne Mayor. Biography of King Mithridates VI of Pontus (located in what is now Turkey). His uncanny ability to surge back after devastating losses unnerved the Romans, while his mastery of poisons allowed him to foil assassination attempts and eliminate rivals.

The Warrior Song of King Gesar by Douglas J. Penick. The legendary King Gesar of Ling is a the subject of an ancient Central Asian epic poem. This is a modern version of the king's heroic saga.

Chinggis Khan by Ruth W. Dunnell. Biography of Mongolian leader Genghis Khan, intended for students.

Other

The Grand Turk: Sultan Mehmet II, Conqueror of Constantinople and Master of an Empire by John Freely. Biography. Mehmet was barely 21 when he conquered Byzantine Constantinople. Three popes called for crusades against him. Revered by the Turks and seen as a tyrant by the West, Mehmet was a brilliant military leader and a renaissance prince.

Tutankhamun: The Life of the Boy King by Jaromir Malek. Brings to life the age of the pharaohs and Howard Carter's discovery of King Tut's tomb. Includes facsimiles of Carter's papers, including diaries and notebooks, as well as photographs, drawings, and diagrams from the expedition.

The Classic Maya by Stephen D. Houston and Takeshi Inomata. In the first millennium AD, the Classic Maya created courtly societies in and around the Yucatan Peninsula, including large settlements like Tikal, Copan, and Palenque. This book reports on kings, queens, nobles, and farmers in societies predicated on sacred kingship.

Fiction

Wolf Hall: A Novel by Hilary Mantel. Thomas Cromwell wins Henry VIII's favor by helping the king annul his marriage to Catherine of Aragon. But Henry is volatile. What will be the price of Cromwell's triumph?

The Queen's Mistake by Diane Haeger. When young Catherine Howard becomes the fifth wife of Henry VIII, she is compelled to deny her heart's desire in favor of her family's ambition.

The Tudor Rose by Margaret Campbell Barnes. Novel about Elizabeth of York set against the background of 15th century England. Thrust into the drama of the War of the Roses, she must unite a kingdom torn apart by a thirst for power.

The Black Tower by Louis Bayard. A young man finds himself dragged into a dangerous mystery surrounding the fate of the son of King Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette.

Gwenhwyfar: The White Spirit by Mercedes Lackey. Novel about King Arthur's wife.

Vlad the Impaler: The Man Who Was Dracula by Sid Jacobson, illustrations by Ernie Colon. Graphic novel tells the ghastly prince's life story in four-color illustrations.

Clisson & Eugenie by Napoleon Bonaparte, translated by Peter Hicks. Triumphant on the field of battle, Clisson turns his back on worldly success to marry Eugénie, but how long will their love survive? Written when Napoleon was 26, this romance shows how he viewed love, women and military life.