Series: The English Monarchs Series

"There are few historians working today who know so much and write so well. Taken together, the two volumes of Henry III . . . set a gold standard for medieval royal biography."—Dan Jones, Times (UK) "A superb work of scholarship, the fruit of a lifetime's study of the subject. It is elegantly written, consistently shrewd and always good-humoured."—Jonathan Sumption,...

A seminal biography of Cnut, the underappreciated eleventh-century Scandinavian warlord-turned-Anglo-Saxon monarch who united the English and Danish crowns to forge a North Sea empire. "A gripping and revelatory biography of Britain's Danish conqueror." — Simon Sebag Montefiore, The Week Historian Timothy Bolton offers a fascinating reappraisal of one of the most misunderstood of the Anglo-Saxon kings: Cnut the Great, the...

The latest definitive biography in the acclaimed Yale English Monarchs series Edward II (1284–1327), King of England, Lord of Ireland, and Duke of Aquitaine, was the object of ignominy during his lifetime and calumny since it. Conventionally viewed as worthless, incapable of sustained policy, and significant only for his sporadic displays of ill-directed energy or a stubborn adherence to greedy...

An authoritative life of Edward the Confessor, the monarch whose death sparked the invasion of 1066. "In putting flesh back on Edward’s bones Licence has brought a new succession story to popular attention."—Leanda de Lisle, The Times “This fine biography of Edward the Confessor is both entertaining and elegiac.” —Nicholas Vincent, The Tablet One of the last kings of Anglo-Saxon...

A landmark biography of the charismatic king beloved by fourteenth-century England Edward III (1312–1377) was the most successful European ruler of his age. Reigning for over fifty years, he achieved spectacular military triumphs and overcame grave threats to his authority, from parliamentary revolt to the Black Death. Revered by his subjects as a chivalric dynamo, he initiated the Hundred Years'...

This new biography of Edward VI, the boy king who died at 15 after ruling England for only six years, reveals for the first time his significant personal impact on the history of his country. Jennifer Loach portrays Edward as healthy and vigorous (contrary to previous views), precocious, highly educated, and decisive, and she details the dramatic context in which...

Despite a long and eventful reign, Britain's George II is a largely forgotten monarch, his achievements overlooked and his abilities misunderstood. This landmark biography uncovers extensive new evidence in British and German archives, making possible the most complete and accurate assessment of this thirty-three-year reign. Andrew C. Thompson paints a richly detailed portrait of the many-faceted monarch in his public...

The first in a ground-breaking two-volume history of Henry III’s rule. “Professor Carpenter is one of Britain’s foremost medievalists…No one knows more about Henry, and a lifetime of scholarship is here poured out, elegantly and often humorously. This is a fine, judicious, illuminating work that should be the standard study of the reign for generations to come.”—Dan Jones, The Sunday...

This definitive biography of England's Henry IV reassesses the adversities of his reign, his ruthlessness and extravagance, and his previously unrecognised successes. "This wonderful biography of the first of the Lancastrian kings is no less accomplished than its subject. . . . A vivid and captivating study of England’s most neglected late medieval ruler." —David Green, author of The Hundred...

Thanks in part to Shakespeare, Henry V is one of England's best-known monarchs. The image of the king leading his army against the French, and the great victory at Agincourt, are part of English historical tradition. Yet, though indeed a soldier of exceptional skill, Henry V's reputation needs to be seen against a broader background of achievement. This sweepingly majestic...

King John is a study of a king and his political misfortunes. It is also an examination of a fascinating era—the early thirteenth century, a period of profound social and political change and unprecedented insecurity. W.L. Warren paints a picture of the king not only by assessing his achievements and failures but also by placing him in the context of...

From Yale's English Monarchs series, the most authoritative picture yet of King Stephen "King has written a masterpiece that reveals how a medieval political community can both consume and then reconstitute itself and offers readers a king emblematic of his truncated, troubled age."—Choice King Stephen's reign (1135–1154), with its "nineteen long winters" of civil war, made his name synonymous with...

Richard II is one of the most enigmatic of English kings. Shakespeare depicted him as a tragic figure, an irresponsible, cruel monarch who nevertheless rose in stature as the substance of power slipped from him. By later writers, he has been variously portrayed as a half-crazed autocrat or a conventional ruler whose principal errors were the mismanagement of his nobility...

In this new account of Richard the Lionheart's reign, John Gillingham scrutinises the king's fluctuating reputation over the centuries and provides a convincing revised interpretation. Neither a feckless knight-errant nor a neglectful king, Richard I was in reality a masterful and businesslike ruler. This paperback edition includes an updated bibliography.

Richard III ruled England for a mere twenty-six months, yet few English monarchs remain as compulsively fascinating, and none has been more persistently vilified. In his absorbing and universally praised account, Charles Ross assesses the king within the context of his violent age and explores the critical questions of the reign: why and how Richard Plantagenet usurped the throne; the...

William II, better known as William Rufus, was the third son of William the Conqueror and England's king for only 13 years (1087-1100) before he was mysteriously assassinated. In this vivid biography, here updated and reissued with a new preface, Frank Barlow reveals an unconventional, flamboyant William Rufus—a far more attractive and interesting monarch than previously believed. Weaving an intimate...

A landmark reinterpretation of the life of William the Conqueror—a pivotal figure in British and European history "[The] definitive biography of the man who forever changed England with his invasion of 1066."—Tony Barber, “Best books of 2016," Financial Times In this magisterial addition to the Yale English Monarchs series, David Bates combines biography and a multidisciplinary approach to examine the...

Æthelstan was perhaps the most important king of tenth-century England, but we know very little about him, and he has no modern biography. Sarah Foot triumphantly fills this gap and adds to the richness of our understanding of the period in a way that few others have managed."—Chris Wickham, author of The Inheritance Of Rome The powerful and innovative King...

First published in 1968, Jack Scarisbrick's Henry VIII is a book which focuses on the personality of this flamboyant and forceful monarch. It explores an impulsive interventionist king whose impact on the government, society, and religion of England is felt more than four centuries on.

An authoritative biography of Offa of Mercia, revealing his importance as the king who stood at the turning point of Anglo-Saxon history. Offa ruled the Mercian heartland of the West Midlands from 757 to 796. While Alfred the Great and his dynasty are seen as agents of a new beginning that resulted in a unified Anglo-Saxon kingdom, Offa is best...

Fifteen years in the making, a landmark reinterpretation of the life of a pivotal figure in British and European history In this magisterial addition to the Yale English Monarchs series, David Bates combines biography and a multidisciplinary approach to examine the life of a major figure in British and European history. Using a framework derived from studies of early medieval...

An authoritative life of Harold II, the king who died at the Battle of Hastings in 1066 Harold Godwinson is renowned as the king who lost England to the invading William the Conqueror in 1066. Infamous legends, invented by the Victorians, surround his life, and have corrupted our idea of him. But who was the real Harold II? In this...

A new appraisal of the first Tudor queen, her European connections, her ambitions and intentions, and the religious violence that stained her short reign The life story of Mary I—daughter of Henry VIII and his Spanish wife, Catherine of Aragon—is often distilled to a few dramatic episodes: her victory over the attempted coup by Lady Jane Grey, the imprisonment of...

In this widely acclaimed biography, Bertram Wolffe challenges the traditional view of Henry VI as an unworldly, innocent, and saintly monarch and offers instead a finely-drawn but critical portrait of an ineffectual ruler. Drawing on widespread contemporary evidence, Wolffe describes the failures of Henry's long reign from 1422 to 1471, which included the collapse of justice, the loss of the...

This biography, written by one of the most distinguished medievalists of his generation, paints a new portrait of Henry I, son of William the Conqueror. Not the brutal, greedy, and repressive king that has been supposed, Henry was the ultimate pragmatist and a man of keen intelligence who desired peace, C. Warren Hollister shows. He vividly describes Henry's life and...

Henry II (1133-1189) was an enigma in his own time and has continued to excite widely divergent judgements ever since. His quarrel with Archbishop Becket, his troubled relationships with his sons and with his wife, Eleanor of Aquitaine, and other dramatic incidents of his reign present rich material for historical novelists, playwrights, and filmmakers, but with no unanimity of interpretation....