Amberley Publishing: 2711 books

This is the history of the men and women who occupied the highest position in English, and later British, society. From Richard III’s infamous life and death, to Henry VIII’s wives, Charles I’s execution and Queen Victoria’s exceptionally long reign, their dramatic story unfolds within the...

Born in Dublin in 1845, Thomas John Barnardo was a workaholic Irishman whose non-stop efforts in the cause of children’s welfare landed him in an early grave at the age of sixty. However, in his own area of work it’s fair to say he changed Britain forever, as much as any one man can. Much of modern...

The Devil, like the poor, is always with us. Evil has been personified in every religion and culture, and Christianity in particular developed a highly graphic view of him from its earliest period. Sometimes grotesque, sometimes beautiful, sometimes threatening, sometimes seductively helpful, sometimes...

The overthrow and execution of Tsar Nicholas II and the Russian Imperial family is a cause célèbre of 20th century history. Andrew Cooks re-investigation of the story finally solves one of the greatest mysteries of world history. The author draws upon new forensic evidence and newly discovered British...

Mary Boleyn, the infamous other Boleyn girl, began her court career as the mistress of the king of France. François I of France would later call her The Great Prostitute and the slur stuck. The bête-noir of her family, Mary was married off to a minor courtier but it was not long before she caught...

At seven oclock on the morning of 13 February 1542, Catherine Howard stepped out into the cold of the great courtyard of the Tower of London. Slowly she was escorted across the yard and carefully helped up the steps of the wooden scaffold. Only a small group of sightseers had gathered to watch the...

The story of Henry VIII and his six wives has passed from history into legend taught in the cradle as a cautionary tale and remembered in adulthood as an object lesson in the dangers of marrying into royalty. The true story behind the legend, however, remains obscure to most people, whose knowledge...

Means to be God, and do as pleases himself Martin Luther observed. It was a shrewd comment, not merely on the divorce in which the King was then embroiled, but upon his whole career. Henry VIII was self righteous, and convinced that he enjoyed a special relationship with the Almighty, which gave him...

Mary Tudor was the first female English sovereign a ruling queen who was not simply the consort of the king. Yet little is known about this complex woman, whose reputation for ruthlessness belied her emotional fragility and who, like her half-sister Elizabeth, had to survive from childhood in the...

I like her not! was the verdict of Henry VIII on meeting his fourth wife, Anne of Cleves, for the first time. Anne could have said something similar on meeting Henry and, having been promised the most handsome prince in Europe, she was destined to be disappointed in the elderly and corpulent king. Henry...

The fall of Anne Boleyn and her brother George is the classic drama of the Tudor era. The Boleyns had long been an influential English family. Sir Edward Boleyn had been Lord Mayor of London. His grandson, Sir Thomas had inherited wealth and position, and through the sexual adventures of his daughters,...

Anne Boleyn was the most controversial and scandalous woman ever to sit on the throne of England. From her early days at the imposing Hever Castle in Kent, to the glittering courts of Paris and London, Anne caused a stir wherever she went. Alluring but not beautiful, Annes wit and poise won her numerous...

Nearly eighty women have sat on the throne of England, either as queen regnant or queen consort and the voices of all of them survive through their own writings and those of their contemporaries. The primary role of the queen over the ages was to provide an heir. Catherine of Aragon found this to...

Jane Seymour is often portrayed as meek and mild and as the most successful, but one of the least significant, of Henry VIIIs wives. The real Jane was a very different character, demure and submissive yet with a ruthless streak as Anne Boleyn was being tried for treason, Jane was choosing her wedding...