Kings & Queens

David Williamson’s text paints a vivid and sensitive portrait of each monarch, revealing the dramatic events and controversies that surrounded them. With a rich selection of images, anecdotes, comprehensive fact boxes and clear family trees, National Portrait Gallery Kings & Queens will appeal to everyone with an interest in history or the British monarchy.

David Williamson’s text paints a vivid and sensitive portrait of each monarch, revealing the dramatic events and controversies that surrounded them. With a rich selection of images, anecdotes, comprehensive fact boxes and clear family trees, National Portrait Gallery Kings & Queens will appeal to everyone with an interest in history or the British monarchy. The book begins by charting Celtic Britain before the Roman invasion to the Norman Conquest of 1066: the establishment of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms, the coming of Christianity and the unification of England. The subsequent dynastic struggles of the Angevins and Plantagenets heralded the great age of English kingship under the Tudors and Stuarts, who united the crowns of Scotland and England, before the Hanoverians combined personal rule with parliamentary government, ushering in the modern age and the royalty of today.