I am quite grateful that every spring and every fall, the local children’s hospital has a book sale. Now, in fairness, some people may say that it only adds to my book hoarding tendencies, but I set a budget a parametres for myself. And that means sticking to the history section. And although there wasn’t as much as there normally is, I was still able to find a few wonderful books that I’m quite excited to read. These are the 7 best royal reads, and why I’m looking forward to enjoying them!
I should clarify that the book sale has far more than just royal history; that happens to be what I focus on. (I’ve yet to find anything on ballet there, sadly.) What I love about book sales and secondhand shops is while you obviously save money, you can also often find books that are no longer in print. Royal history is quite popular, but books also tend to come in and out of print frequently, and can be quite difficult to find after a while. So, grab them when you can!
General
Doomed Queens, Kris Waldherr
Illicit love, madness, betrayal—it isn’t always good to be the queen.
Marie Antoinette, Anne Boleyn, and Mary, Queen of Scots. What did they have in common? For a while they were crowned in gold, cosseted in silk, and flattered by courtiers. But in the end, they spent long nights in dark prison towers and were marched to the scaffold where they surrendered their heads to the executioner. And they are hardly alone in their undignified demises. Throughout history, royal women have had a distressing way of meeting bad ends—dying of starvation, being burned at the stake, or expiring in childbirth while trying desperately to produce an heir. They always had to be on their toes and all too often even devious plotting, miraculous pregnancies, and selling out their sisters was not enough to keep them from forcible consignment to religious orders. From Cleopatra (suicide by asp), to Princess Caroline (suspiciously poisoned on her coronation day), there’s a gory downside to being blue-blooded when you lack a Y chromosome.
Kris Waldherr’s elegant little book is a chronicle of the trials and tribulations of queens across the ages, a quirky, funny, utterly macabre tribute to the dark side of female empowerment. Over the course of fifty irresistibly illustrated and too-brief lives, Doomed Queens charts centuries of regal backstabbing and intrigue. We meet well-known figures like Catherine of Aragon, whose happy marriage to Henry VIII ended prematurely when it became clear that she was a starter wife—the first of six. And we meet forgotten queens like Amalasuntha, the notoriously literate Ostrogoth princess who overreached politically and was strangled in her bath. While their ends were bleak, these queens did not die without purpose. Their unfortunate lives are colorful cautionary tales for today’s would-be power brokers—a legacy of worldly and womanly wisdom gathered one spectacular regal ruin at a time.
I had actually already read this book before I spotted it at the booksale, but for only $2, I absolutely had to grab it. I wouldn’t use it for historical research, but it is a quirky and quick look at various doomed royal women throughout history. (Sidenote: not quite all are queens, but I suppose Doomed Royal Women doesn’t have the same ring to it…) Even royal watchers will learn a new tidbit or two. And if that isn’t enough to sway you, you will now be the owner of 6 paper dolls to do with what you like!
The Tudors
Katherine Howard: The Tragic Story of Henry VIII’s Fifth Queen, Josephine Wilkinson
Looming out of the encroaching darkness of the February evening was London Bridge, still ornamented with the severed heads of Thomas Culpeper and Francis Dereham; the terrible price they had paid for suspected intimacy with the queen.
Katherine now reached the Tower of London, her final destination.
Katherine Howard was the fifth wife of Henry VIII and cousin to the executed Anne Boleyn. She first came to court as a young girl of fourteen, but even prior to that her fate had been sealed and she was doomed to die. She was beheaded in 1542 for crimes of adultery and treason, in one of the most sensational scandals of the Tudor age.
The traditional story of Henry VIII’s fifth queen dwells on her sexual exploits before she married the king, and her execution is seen as her just dessert for having led an abominable life. However, the true story of Katherine Howard could not be more different.
Far from being a dark tale of court factionalism and conspiracy, Katherine’s story is one of child abuse, family ambition, religious conflict and political and sexual intrigue. It is also a tragic love story. A bright, kind and intelligent young woman, Katherine was fond of clothes and dancing, yet she also had a strong sense of duty and tried to be a good wife to Henry. She handled herself with grace and queenly dignity to the end, even as the barge carrying her on her final journey drew up at the Tower of London, where she was to be executed for high treason.
Little more than a child in a man’s world, she was the tragic victim of those who held positions of authority over her, and from whose influence she was never able to escape.
Katherine Howard is one of my favourite royal consorts. Yes, she is problematic and depending on your opinion, she was the architect of her own downfall. (Not my completely my opinion, though…) I was quite excited to spot this at the book sale- though it was $9, more than most books, it has been on my to-read list for quite some time. Katherine Howard is often written off as an idiot or slut, and given no further thought. However, she was a real person with little agency in her own life, and she deserves far more of our attention. This will be one of my next reads, certainly!
The Wives of Henry VIII, Antonia Fraser
In a sweeping narrative, Fraser traces the cultural, familial and political roots of each of Henry’s queens, pushes aside the stereotypes that have long defined them, and illuminates the complex character of each. The result is a superb work of history through which these six women become as memorable for their own achievements–and mistakes–as they have always been for their fateful link to Henry VIII.
After my post on the best books about the six wives, I discovered about a million books about the women. However, Antonia Fraser’s intrigued me. Not because I believe that she has any info the rest of us don’t, but because she is one of my favourite historians. I would argue that she is one of the most talented royal historians of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, and we are lucky that she has written so many books. I find her works easy to read, and they almost come across as novels- I’m planning on reading this before I see Six again in November!
The Stuarts
Killers of the King: The Men Who Dared to Execute Charles I, Charles Spencer
On August 18, 1648, with no relief from the siege in sight, the royalist garrison holding Colchester Castle surrendered and Oliver Cromwell’s army firmly ended the rule of Charles I of England. To send a clear message to the fallen monarch, the rebels executed four of the senior officers captured at the castle. Yet still, the king refused to accept he had lost the war. As France and other allies mobilized in support of Charles, a tribunal was hastily gathered and a death sentence was passed. On January 30, 1649, the King of England was executed. This is the account of the fifty-nine regicides, the men who signed Charles I’s death warrant. Recounting a little-known corner of British history, Charles Spencer explores what happened when the Restoration arrived. From George Downing, the chief plotter, to Richard Ingoldsby, who claimed he was forced to sign his name by his cousin Oliver Cromwell, and from those who returned to the monarchist cause and betrayed their fellow regicides to those that fled the country in an attempt to escape their punishment, Spencer examines the long-lasting, far-reaching consequences not only for those who signed the warrant, but also for those who were present at the trial and for England itself. A powerful tale of revenge from the dark heart of England’s past, and a unique contribution to seventeenth-century history, Killers of the King tells the incredible story of the men who dared to assassinate a monarch.
Sadly, there was not much in the way of Stuart history. (There were a handful of other books, buuuuut I may already own them.) I have been looking at this book for a while. Charles Spencer, brother to Princess Diana, is a bit of an odd figure for me- much of what he has done is for media attention. However, I am fascinated by the Stuarts, and this is one of the notable books on Charles II in terms of pop history. After visiting Banqueting House on my trip, I’ve become much more interested in his execution, and I grabbed this one of Charles for only $3.
The Windsors
The Secret of the Crown: Canada’s Affair with Royalty, John Fraser
Award-winning journalist, author, and royal authority John Fraser explores the endurance and allure of the Crown in Canada. With his trademark wit and artful agility, Fraser looks at the Crown’s evolution from the Age of Deference to the era of celebrity to the present popular revival. He examines the differences between tribal monarchy and constitutional monarchy, the key roles of the governor general and the lieutenant governor, and the media’s insatiable appetite for the Royal Family. Finally, he speculates on the future reign of Charles, Prince of Wales, and pays homage to Queen Elizabeth II on her Diamond Jubilee.
Admittedly, this is fairly niche for royal history, but I’ve seen this book on the relationship of Canada and the monarchy a few times, so I decided to give it a chance. It doesn’t have the best reviews on Goodreads, but I’m not looking for any deep history, just an overview and perhaps some new opinions to consider. (I have to say, I’m interested to read the chapter on King Charles III [if he takes that name] and Canada!)
Princess Margaret: A Life Unravelled, Tim Heald
The almost universal conception is that the life of Princess Margaret (1930–2002) was a tragic failure, a history of unfulfilment. Tim Heald’s vivid and elegant biography portrays a woman who was beautiful and sexually alluring—even more so than Princess Diana years later—and whose reputation for naughtiness co-existed with the glamour. The mythology is that Margaret’s life was “ruined” by her not being allowed to marry the one true love of her life—Group Captain Peter Townsend. Therefore her marriage to Lord Snowdon and her well-attested relationships with Roddy Llewellyn and others were mere consolation prizes. Margaret’s often exotic personal life in places like Mustique is a key part of her story. The author received extraordinary help from those closest to Princess Margaret, including her family (Lord Snowdon and her son, Lord Linley), three of her private secretaries, and many of her ladies in waiting; as well as gaining the Queen’s permission to use the royal archives. Heald asks why one of the most famous and loved little girls in the world, who became a juvenile wartime sweetheart, ended her life a sad wheelchairbound figure, publicly reviled and ignored. This is a story of a life in which the private and the public seemed permanently in conflict.
Oh, Princess Margaret- I don’t think that there is a more complex figure in the modern royal family. She started life in an arguably archaic family situation, and ended in one of the most modern. Of course she led a life of incredible privilege, but she also lacked many of the basic freedoms that most of us enjoy. I read 99 Glimpses of Princess Margaret by Craig Brown, but I’m looking forward to reading a more focused and traditional biography of the Queen’s sister. And with The Crown only becoming more and more popular, I think that there will be more people looking for Princess Margaret Rose biographies!
The Queen’s Jewels: The Personal Collection of Elizabeth II, Leslie Field
The first definitive account of the priceless jewels owned by Queen Elizabeth II, published with the full cooperation of Buckingham Palace. First serial to Life. 285 illustrations, 85 in full color.
This is without a doubt my best find at the booksale! Although there seems to be some arguments over the book (some things have been dis-proven), it is still a great resource for QEII’s jewel collection. It doesn’t necessarily cover the full collection, as these were only the pieces that had been seen publicly, but is still quite large. (Many of her jewels fall into the state collection, so you may not see them.) The only criticism I personally have is that a lot of the pictures aren’t in colour, and for a 1970s monograph, they all should be. However, what makes this book so wonderful is the newspaper clipping that you see with it- it is a clipping from one of our local Winnipeg papers from 1970 when the royal family visited, and one side of it has some of the Queen’s most notable pieces of jewellery. (The other has highlights from their visit here.) And I’ve already used both the book and the clippings in research!
What do you think are the best royal reads?
Cheers,
The Historian
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