Monarchy: England and her Rulers from the Tudors to the Windsors

click here for more details, find new or used items	David Starkey Our price £5.99 (£8.99) New from £2.93 Used from £2.40 Pages: 256 (Paperback) ISBN: 0007247664 Pub: Harper Perennial Pub date: 2007-09-03 Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 10806

Reader Reviews:

Monarchy 101 (0/0 people found this helpful)

David Starkey has an encyclopeadic knowledge of the lives, loves, intrigues and wars of our largely imported monarchy and it is well presented here, although not in any great depth. Whilst not exhaustive, this book gives a very good overview of the main events and key members of the supporting cast, and at the very least you'll come away with a much better idea of the order of play over the past few hundred years. Starkey seems to take a dim view of many of his subjects and often quite critical of their actions so he's unlikely to be collecting a knighthood any time soon. Overall an enjoyable and authoritative introduction to all those foreigners that have born the title "King of England"

Very engaging (1/1 people found this helpful)

I bought this out of a sense of duty - my knowledge of English history is pretty poor - and was expecting it to be rather dry. However, it was a lot of fun and a real page turner; packed with detail, very good on the political and economic contexts that shaped how the monarchy evolved, and written in an engaging and witty style. Rather than a description just of "Who" the monarchs were, it also explains very well "how" and "why" we ended up with the system we have.

Beautifully written, perfectly balanced (3/4 people found this helpful)

"Monarchy" by historian David Starkey is a beautifully written history of the development of the British monarchy from medieval times onwards. The story of the constant, often involuntary adjustments of the monarchy to hold on to its position is portrayed in a very clear way, making the book a joy to read.

In my opinion, the writer has found the perfect balance between important historical developments, constitutional changes and personal stories of monarchs and other players. The result is that the story has a natural flow, giving all monarchs equal attention and showing connections between events, reigns and changes unknown to me.

From a Dutch point of view, where Willem III (from William and Mary) is one of our less appealing and influential monarchs, the writer gives William of Orange credits for being the founder of modern Britain. I would love to see Starkey write a similar history on the Dutch monarchy.

All in all, "Monarchy" is wonderfully written and reads like a train. Starkey has managed to create one big, logical story in stead of a series of unconnected chapters as taught at school: Chapeau!

Read the reviews for the hardback version also (4/8 people found this helpful)

If you are thinking of buying this book then I suggest you read the reviews for the hard back version also. Most reviewers have rated this quite highly.

Monarchy, from the Tudors to the Windsors (4/20 people found this helpful)

David Starkey should stick to TV documentary portrayals of history, because without the TV behind him he is DULL DULL DULL. All he has succeeded in doing - with this book - and I've read a few - is reducing the story of this explosive period to the dull chronology of a cost-effective and judiciously-crafted university lecture.
Any fool can do that. VERY disappointed. At £8.99 - frankly, 10 x what it is worth.

Guy Croft

Similar Products

Elizabeth

Six Wives: The Queens of Henry VIII

Monarchy: From the Middle Ages to Modernity

The Reign of Henry VIII: Personalities and Politics

The Monarchy of England: The Beginnings: Beginnings v. 1

Categories

Amazon.co.uk places this book into the following categories: