Download or read book The Royal Stuarts written by Allan Massie and published by Macmillan. This book was released on 2011-12-20 with total page 546 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Compelling...A masterly feat...A magnificent, sweeping, authoritative, warm yet wry history."--The Wall Street Journal In this fascinating and intimate portrait of the Stuarts, author Allan Massie takes us deep into one of history's bloodiest and most tumultuous reigns. Exploring the family's lineage from the first Stuart king to the last, The Royal Stuarts is a panoramic history of the family that acted as a major player in the Scottish Wars of Independence, the Union of the Crowns, the English Civil War, the Restoration, and more. Drawing on the accounts of historians past and present, novels, and plays, this is the complete story of the Stuart family, documenting their path from the salt marshes of Brittany to the thrones of Scotland and England and eventually to exile. The Royal Stuarts brings to life figures like Mary, Queens of Scots, Charles I, and Bonnie Prince Charlie, uncovering a family of strong affections and fierce rivalries. Told with panache, this is the gripping true story of backstabbing, betrayal, and ambition gone awry.
Download or read book Dynasty written by John Macleod and published by Macmillan. This book was released on 2001-04-20 with total page 430 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Offers an irreverent take on the royal family that united Great Britain, chronicling the trials and triumphs of a dynasty that oversaw the rise of English Protestantism and the evolution of modern British democracy.
Download or read book James III written by Norman Macdougall and published by Birlinn Ltd. This book was released on 2009-06-08 with total page 645 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: James III is the most enigmatic of the Stewart kings of Scotland. Variously characterised as artistic, peace-loving, morbidly suspicious, treacherous, pious, lecherous and lazy, King James was much criticised by contemporaries and later chroniclers for his failure to do his job in the manner expected of him, and particularly for his reliance on low-born favourites to the exclusion of his 'natural' counsellors, the nobility. Specific complaints included debasement of the coinage, royal hoarding of money, failure to staunch feuds and to enforce criminal justice. Yet James III has also been seen as a major patron of the arts, as Scotland's first Renaissance king, and as the architect of an intelligent and forward-looking foreign policy. In this new study, the author explores all these areas and seeks to explain why King James was challenged by a huge rebellion in 1482, which he narrowly survived, and why he succumbed to a further rising in 1488, which placed his eldest son on the throne as James IV.
Download or read book James IV written by Norman Macdougall and published by Birlinn Ltd. This book was released on 2015-06-10 with total page 589 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: James IV is the best-known of all the late medieval Scottish rulers. Widely praised by his contemporaries, he combined the qualities of successful medieval monarch with a wide interest in the arts and sciences, while remaining acutely conscious of the need to enhance the prestige of his dynasty throughout Europe. This excellent study examines all aspects of James IV's sovereignty, explains his popularity and his highly successful kingship and assesses reasons for the disastrous end to the reign when the king and a large population of the Scottish nobility were eliminated in a single afternoon in 1513 at Flodden. This book represents Scottish historical research at its very best. It is meticulously researched and sensitively written.
Download or read book Stuart Succession Literature written by Paulina Kewes and published by . This book was released on 2019 with total page 388 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Moments of royal succession, which punctuate the Stuart era (1603-1714), occasioned outpourings of literature. Writers, including most of the major figures of the seventeenth century from Jonson, Daniel, and Donne to Marvell, Dryden, and Behn, seized upon these occasions: to mark the transition of power; to reflect upon the political structures and values of their nation; and to present themselves as authors worthy of patronage and recognition. This volume of essays explores this important category of early modern writing. It contends that succession literature warrants attention as a distinct category: appreciated by contemporaries, acknowledged by a number of scholars, but never investigated in a coherent and methodical manner, it helped to shape political reputations and values across the period. Benefitting from the unique database of such writing generated by the AHRC-funded Stuart Successions Project, the volume brings together a distinguished group of authors to address a subject which is of wide and growing interest to students both of history and of literature. It illuminates the relation between literature and politics in this pivotal century of English political and cultural history. Interdisciplinary in scope, the volume will be indispensable to scholars of early modern British literature and history as well as undergraduates and postgraduates in both fields.
Download or read book The Stewart Kingdom of Scotland 1371 1603 written by Caroline Bingham and published by George Weidenfeld & Nicholson. This book was released on 1974 with total page 322 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Oxford Illustrated History of Tudor Stuart Britain written by John Stephen Morrill and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 1996 with total page 556 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Two centuries of dramatic change are covered by this exciting and richly illustrated work. Eighteen leading scholars explore the political, social, religious, and cultural history of the period when monarchs based in south-east England imperfectly attempted to extend their authority over thewhole of the British Isles. These centuries witnessed the Reformation, the civil wars, and two revolutions, in which two monarchs, two wives of a king, and two archbishops of Canterbury were tried and executed, and hundreds of men and women tortured and burned in the name of religion. Yet in the same period, an explosion ofliteracy and the printed word, transformations in landscapes and townscapes, new forms of wealth, new structures of power, and new forms of political participation freed minds and broadened horizons. These centuries marked the beginning of Britain's imperial power and its emergence as perhaps themost liberal and mature of European states. The integrated illustrations and maps form an essential part of the book, complementing all aspects of the text. It also contains a Chronology, Glossary, Family Trees of the monarchy, Further Reading, and an extensive Index.
Download or read book James VII written by Alastair Mann and published by Birlinn. This book was released on 2014-12-21 with total page 331 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: James VII and II is one of the least studied monarchs of Scotland, and has previously mostly been studied from an English perspective or as the muddled victim of the revolution of 1688/9 which delivered for Britain much-vaunted political emancipation. This book provides the first complete portrait of James as a Stewart prince of Scotland, as duke of Albany and King of Scots. It re-evaluates the traditional views of James as a Catholic extremist and absolutist who failed through incompetence, and challenges preconceptions based on strong views of his failings, both in popular belief and serious history. Investigating the personality and motives of the man, this biography assesses James as commander, as Christian and as king, but also as family man and Restoration libertine - a prince of his time. Painting a picture of James from cradle to grave, from childhood to resigned exile, it brings him to life within his Scottish context and as a member of the royal line of Scotland. The journey from dashing young cavalry commander to pious prince in exile appears oddly incongruous given the political and personal trials that lay between. That journey was much more of Scotland than previous studies have suggested - indeed, James was in many ways the last King of Scots.
Download or read book Mary Queen of Scots written by Jenny Wormald and published by Birlinn Ltd. This book was released on 2017-08-10 with total page 371 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Mary Stuart, Queen of Scots, has long been portrayed as one of history's romantically tragic figures. Devious, naïve, beautiful and sexually voracious, often highly principled, she secured the Scottish throne and bolstered the position of the Catholic Church in Scotland. Her plotting, including probable involvement in the murder of her husband Lord Darnley, led to her flight from Scotland and imprisonment by her equally ambitious cousin and fellow queen, Elizabeth of England. Yet when Elizabeth ordered Mary's execution in 1587 it was an act of exasperated frustration rather than political wrath. Unlike biographies of Mary predating this work, this masterly study set out to show Mary as she really was – not a romantic heroine, but the ruler of a European kingdom with far greater economic and political importance than its size or location would indicate. Wormald also showed that Mary's downfall was not simply because of the 'crisis years' of 1565–7, but because of her way of dealing, or failing to deal, with the problems facing her as a renaissance monarch. She was tragic because she was born to supreme power but was wholly incapable of coping with its responsibilities. Her extraordinary story has become one of the most colourful and emotionally searing tales of western history, and it is here fully reconsidered by a leading specialist of the period. Jenny Wormald's beautifully written biography will appeal to students and general readers alike.
Download or read book The Early Stewart Kings written by Stephen Boardman and published by Birlinn Ltd. This book was released on 2022-07-07 with total page 459 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Stewart Dynasty in Scotland series aims to bring the rich political heritage of late medieval and early modern Scotland before as wide a reading public as possible, with specialist authors writing for the general reader as well as the student or academic. This volume is number one in the series and is also the first scholarly biography of the two kings who established medieval Scotland's most famous and durable royal dynasty. Robert II, long regarded as a weak and ineffective king, pursued a determined political and propaganda campaign which largely overcame initial political opposition. Robert III was forced to engage in a long-term struggle with his brother Albany for control of the kingdom. Firmly based on contemporary documentary sources, Stephen Boardman's study examines the ways in which the unjustly poor reputations of both kings grew from later embellishments to contemporary political propaganda.
Download or read book James II written by Christine McGladdery and published by Stewart Dynasty in Scotland. This book was released on 2015 with total page 306 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this study of the reign of James II of Scotland, the king is viewed in the context of the Stewart monarchy, from his struggles to overcome his early adversity and the legacy of his father's style of kingship, to the serious political crises of his reign. The relations between the king and his subjects, and the complex balance of power in medieval Scotland are examined, particularly the significant crisis precipitated by James II's attack on the Black Douglases, the greatest of all late medieval magnate families. The changing nature of political involvement among the nobility and the role of Parliament in influencing events are explored, as are the efforts of the king to recover and promote royal authority in the final years of his reign. The role of James II in the wider European context is also studied with a view to shedding light on contemporary perceptions of the Stewart monarchy both at home and abroad. The study is based on contemporary chronicle and official sources, and consideration is also given to later, highly coloured views of James II, which have influenced popular views of the king to the present day.
Download or read book History of the Stewart Or Stuart Family written by Henry James Lee and published by . This book was released on 1920 with total page 136 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Stewart (Stuart) family was part of the Royal family of Scotland and England.
Download or read book James I written by Michael Brown and published by Birlinn Ltd. This book was released on 2015-06-10 with total page 339 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Conditioned by a childhood surrounded by the rivalries of the Stewart family, and by eighteen years of enforced exile in England, James I was to prove a king very different from his elderly and conservative forerunners. This major study draws on a wide range of sources, assessing James I's impact on his kingdom. Michael Brown examines James's creation of a new, prestigious monarchy based on a series of bloody victories over his rivals and symbolised by lavish spending at court. He concludes that, despite the apparent power and glamour, James I's 'golden age' had shallow roots; after a life of drastically swinging fortunes, James I was to meet his end in a violent coup, a victim of his own methods. But whether as lawgiver, tyrant or martyr, James I has cast a long shadow over the history of Scotland.
Download or read book A Companion to Stuart Britain written by Barry Coward and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2008-04-15 with total page 592 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Covering the period from the accession of James I to the death of Queen Anne, this companion provides a magisterial overview of the ‘long' seventeenth century in British history. Comprises original contributions by leading scholars of the period Gives a magisterial overview of the ‘long' seventeenth century Provides a critical reference to historical debates about Stuart Britain Offers new insights into the major political, religious and economic changes that occurred during this period Includes bibliographical guidance for students and scholars
Download or read book The Stewart Dynasty written by Stewart Ross and published by . This book was released on 1993 with total page 344 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A full-length history of the Stewart dynasty. It throws light on historical significance and gives new emphasis to personality traits. The text covers such famous names as Bonnie Prince Charlie, Mary Queen of Scots and Charles I. The author has also written Monarchs of Scotland, Scottish Castles and Ancient Scotland.
Download or read book The Sickly Stuarts written by Frederick Holmes and published by Sutton Publishing Limited. This book was released on 2005 with total page 292 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Disease, disaster and disability plagued the Stuart Family during the period they ruled England - 1603 to 1714. In this title, Frederick Holmes has documented the medical problems of this unfortunate family.
Download or read book The Cradle King written by Alan Stewart and published by Random House. This book was released on 2011-10-31 with total page 458 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: As the son of Mary Queen of Scots, born into her 'bloody nest', James had the most precarious of childhoods. Even before his birth, his life was threatened: it was rumoured that his father, Henry, had tried to make the pregnant Mary miscarry by forcing her to witness the assassination of her supposed lover, David Riccio. By the time James was one year old, Henry was murdered, possibly with the connivance of Mary; Mary was in exile in England; and James was King of Scotland. By the age of five, he had experienced three different regents as the ancient dynasties of Scotland battled for power and made him a virtual prisoner in Stirling Castle. In fact, James did not set foot outside the confines of Stirling until he was eleven, when he took control of his country. But even with power in his hands, he would never feel safe. For the rest of his life, he would be caught up in bitter struggles between the warring political and religious factions who sought control over his mind and body. Yet James believed passionately in the divine right of kings, as many of his writings testify. He became a seasoned political operator, carefully avoiding controversy, even when his mother Mary was sent to the executioner by Elizabeth I. His caution and politicking won him the English throne on Elizabeth's death in 1603 and he rapidly set about trying to achieve his most ardent ambition: the Union of the two kingdoms. Alan Stewart's impeccably researched new biography makes brilliant use of original sources to bring to life the conversations and the controversies of the Jacobean age. From James's 'inadvised' relationships with a series of favourites and Gentlemen of the Bedchamber to his conflicts with a Parliament which refused to fit its legislation to the Monarch's will, Stewart lucidly untangles the intricacies of James's life. In doing so, he uncovers the extent to which Charles I's downfall was caused by the cracks that appeared in the monarchy during his father's reign.
