Crown and Country: A History of England through the Monarchy

Crown and Country: A History of England through the Monarchy
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. This compendium volume of two earlier books is fully revised and updated.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.This brilliant collection of biographies of Britain’s kings and queens provides an in-depth examination of what the British monarchy has meant, what it means now and what it will continue to mean. Bringing to life a cast of colourful characters, Starkey’s trademark energy and authority make him the perfect guide on this epic, accessible and compelling journey, as he offers us a vivid portrait of British culture, politics and nationhood through an institution that has defined the realm for nearly two thousand years.

Crown and Country

A History of England through the Monarchy

DAVID STARKEY

Copyright

Published by HarperPress in 2010

Copyright © Jutland 2010

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The Monarchy of England: Volume I, The Beginnings first published by Chatto and Windus, a division of Random House, 2004 © Jutland 2004

Monarchy: From the Middle Ages to Modernity first published by HarperPress 2006 © David Starkey 2006

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David Starkey asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

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HB ISBN 9780007307708

TPB ISBN 9780007307715

Ebook Edition © 2010 ISBN: 9780007424825

Version: 2018-08-08

To all those who worked with me on the Channel 4 Monarchy series for helping me understand history better and write it more clearly

Contents

Cover (#u46bf20f7-aed1-5dac-b83e-e63e58c4d17a)

Title Page (#u06c9429f-c238-514e-a62f-294e8d4b330e)

Copyright

Family Trees

Houses of Godwin and Wessex

Houses of Normandy, Anjou and the Plantagenets

Houses of York, Lancaster and Tudor

Houses of Tudor, Stuart and the Hanoverians

House of Windsor

Foreword

PART I - BEGINNINGS

Chapter 1 - The Shadow of Rome

Chapter 2 - Christian Kingship

Chapter 3 - Wessex

Chapter 4 - Triumph and Disaster

Chapter 5 - Confessor and Conquest

PART II - THE MEDIEVAL MONARCHY

Chapter 6 - Subjugation

Chapter 7 - Sons of Conquest

Chapter 8 - The Triumphant King

Chapter 9 - Civil War

Chapter 10 - ‘Touch Not Mine Anointed’

Chapter 11 - The Curse of Anjou

Chapter 12 - War Monarchy

Chapter 13 - Death of a Dynasty

PART III - THE IMPERIAL CROWN

Chapter 14 - The Man Who Would Be King