In 1553, 17-year-old Lady Jane Grey was proclaimed Queen of England to prevent the accession of Henry VIII’s Catholic daughter Mary. Thirteen days later she was imprisoned in the Tower, and in February 1554 she was beheaded. This narrative history draws on previously overlooked sources to create a vivid and engaging portrait of an intelligent, charismatic and deeply religious girl caught up in the power politics of her age, whose courage shone through her final, harrowing ordeal.

A proud, indomitable, absolutist monarch, Francis I (1494–1547) ‘was the king that his country needed, if not the one it might have wished for’, and despite his achievements – in unifying and glorifying France and as the patron of art and architecture who recruited Leonardo da Vinci to his court and built Fontainebleau – Francis is remembered, if at all, for his failings. In this biography, Leonie Frieda offers a rigorous reassessment of the ‘Maker of Modern France’.

The son of a blacksmith, Thomas Cromwell has long been reviled as a schemer who stopped at nothing in his quest for power. He ended up as Henry VIII's right-hand man, and exercised enormous influence during some of the most momentous events in the country's history. This biography from the Joint Chief Curator of Historic Royal Palaces goes beyond the fiction of Wolf Hall to reveal the true story of this controversial, complex and fascinating figure.

Although familiar from Hilary Mantel’s fictional Wolf Hall, Thomas Cromwell (c.1485–1540) has proved an elusive subject to biographers. With this magisterial study, MacCulloch presents ‘the true Thomas Cromwell of history’, based on a meticulous study of his surviving papers. The biography pays particular attention to Cromwell’s early years and his rapid rise to power in 1532, the importance of his religious agenda and his efforts conceal that motivation, and the dynastic ambitions that contributed significantly to his fall. Slightly off-mint with felt tip mark on lower trimmed edge.

A proud, indomitable, absolutist monarch, Francis I (1494–1547) ‘was the king that his country needed, if not the one it might have wished for’, and despite his achievements – in unifying and glorifying France and as the patron of art and architecture who recruited Leonardo da Vinci to his court and built Fontainebleau – Francis is remembered, if at all, for his failings. In this biography, Leonie Frieda offers a rigorous reassessment of the ‘Maker of Modern France’. Slightly off-mint and felt-tip mark on lower trimmed edge.

Off-mint.

Off-mint.

Credit for creating the British army often goes to Charles II or William III, with James II’s role in the organization of a viable, expanded institution overlooked. Ede-Borrett addresses this with a thorough, illustrated account of its development, drawing on royal archives and contemporary documents to detail its regiments, troops, uniforms, equipment, flags and other paraphernalia.

Terry Breverton takes a fresh approach to Henry VII’s life and reign, following the king’s movements and describing his whereabouts, the people he was with and what he was doing to give a personal account of Henry and Elizabeth’s life. This is a more sympathetic portrait of the king than recent studies have offered, emphasizing Henry’s achievement in restoring peace and prosperity after the Wars of the Roses and securing for his son a peaceful succession and a solvent country.

The rapid rise of Charles Brandon to become Henry VIII’s most trusted and influential advisor alarmed his contemporaries and has puzzled historians. Reviewing the scant surviving evidence, this biography provides a chronological account of the career of this elusive figure. He held a succession of powerful offices, despite his controversial marriage to the king’s sister, disappointing military campaigns and suspicion that he spied for the French, and retained Henry’s favour to the last. Off-mint.

The modern separation of religion from other aspects of life is one of many unintended consequences of the Reformation that would have shocked Martin Luther. This study of the devout Augustinian friar and his influence sets Luther within his cultural and intellectual contexts to explain what he was trying to achieve. It then traces 500 years of epochal changes, from the Enlightenment to consumerism, which were caused by the resulting political and social upheavals across Europe. Slightly off-mint and felt-tip mark on lower trimmed edge.

In 1621 the near-bankrupt Virginia Company of London made a profit by shipping across the Atlantic 56 young women who had been hand-picked as brides for the planters of its new colony. Using archival sources including the company’s own records, Potter gives voice to these women, asking why they agreed to make the dangerous journey, how they adapted to their new lives, how they chose their husbands and what happened to them in the end.

Even before James I’s death in 1625, rumours spread that he was being poisoned by a court favourite, the Duke of Buckingham, who had been cultivating the heir to the throne. Historians have long dismissed the charge, but in a detailed reassessment of contemporary sources the authors trace how this scandalous claim was widely published, believed and debated in Britain and beyond. They also examine how it both reflected and shaped political conflicts that would eventually lead to civil war.

In a scholarly, richly illustrated study of the mid-17th-century Neapolitan art world, Marshall charts the links between the artisans, painters and dealers of this bustling city and its wealthy patrons and consumers of art. Among the topics examined are the working lives of artists, the process of buying and selling cabinet pictures, the rise of the exhibition, and the careers of successful artists such as Luca Giordano, Jusepe de Ribera and Massimo Stanzione.

Launched in 1678, the Anne was one of the ‘Thirty Ships of War’ constructed to double the strength of Charles II’s Navy. Having been lost at the Battle of Beachy Head in 1690, it is now one of the most important wrecks on England’s south coast. In this volume the ship’s technical historian explains Anne’s construction and specifications, follows its 1687 mission to the Mediterranean and discusses efforts to survey and preserve the wreck.

Catherine of Aragon has been remembered as a tragic figure, the woman Henry VIII divorced for want of a male heir. Amy Licence takes issue with this portrayal: her study presents neither a victim nor a divorcée, but a highly educated Spanish princess and a great humanist queen who, in the early years of her marriage, was Henry's advisor and his warrior. A portrait of a 'complex, passionate, unbreakable woman', the biography also upholds Catherine's unwavering conviction that her 'divorce' was invalid.

David Loades’s concise and richly illustrated study focuses on significant aspects of Elizabeth I’s life and reign and is structured around 20 manuscripts held in the National Archives, including letters to and from Elizabeth, her first speech as monarch, a report of the Armada and the queen’s letter acknowledging James VI of Scotland as her heir.

From the order of ceremony for James’s baptism in 1633 to a prayer written by the exiled king in 1698, 20 documents, mostly in his own hand, accompany this short, illustrated life of James II from the English Monarchs: Treasures from the National Archive series.

The most significant Scottish politician of the late Stewart age and a man of great learning and ability, John Maitland (1616–1682), ‘King Lauderdale’, served on the Westminster Assembly and the Committee of Both Kingdoms and became Secretary of State for Scotland and a member of Charles II's 'Cabal'. Paterson’s study is both a balanced portrayal of Maitland and a lucid analysis of late 17th-century political life. Off-mint.

When Henry Tudor was crowned King Henry VII in 1485 his mother, Margaret Beaufort (1443–1509), became the most powerful woman in England. Margaret was 13 years old when Henry was born, shortly after the death of her husband, Edmund Tudor, and in the midst of war. It was an inauspicious beginning but her ambition, skill and determination won through to found a dynasty. Nicola Tallis’s new biography dispels the myths about Margaret and shows her life to be more remarkable than the many fictions it has inspired.

A dynasty that originated in 1372 with the birth of John Beaufort, the illegitimate son of John of Gaunt, the Beauforts were loyal supporters of the Lancastrian monarchs. They amassed authority during the 15th century and ultimately claimed the English throne with the victory of Lady Margaret Beaufort’s son, Henry Tudor, at Bosworth. The Beaufort earls, duke and cardinals were ‘highly visible in the stories of others’; this study focuses on the rise and fall and rise again of this intriguing family.

The Wars of the Roses that convulsed 15th-century England sprang from a family quarrel as fraught and intimate as any before or since. It is often viewed in terms of its male protagonists but, as this history makes clear, women played a key role, among them the Yorkist matriarch Cecily Neville; Margaret of Anjou, formidable wife of the mad King Henry VI; and Margaret Beaufort, whose ambition for her son ushered in the Tudor dynasty.