Based on new archival material, a biography of the ambitious Tudor queen focuses on her life at the height of her power, including revolts in Ireland, riots in the London streets of London and a conspiracy to overthrow her.

An epic history of the Plantagenet royal dynasty traces its first king's inheritance of a violence-stricken realm through the family's growth of a powerful empire that stretched from Scotland to Jerusalem, citing the enduring influences of such figures as Eleanor of Aquitaine, Richard II and King John.

1599 was an epochal year for Shakespeare and England Shakespeare wrote four of his most famous plays: Henry the Fifth, Julius Caesar, As You Like It, and, most remarkably, Hamlet; Elizabethans sent off an army to crush an Irish rebellion, weathered an Armada threat from Spain, gambled on a fledgling East India Company, and waited to see who would succeed their aging and childless queen. James Shapiro illuminates both Shakespeare’s staggering achievement and what Elizabethans experienced in the course of 1599, bringing together the news and the intrigue of the times with a wonderful evocation of how Shakespeare worked as an actor, businessman, and playwright. The result is an exceptionally immediate and gripping account of an inspiring moment in history.

Preeminent Shakespeare scholar James Shapiro shows how the tumultuous events in 1606 influenced three of Shakespeare’s greatest tragedies written that year—King Lear, Macbeth,and Antony and Cleopatra. “The Year of Lear is irresistible—a banquet of wisdom

A dramatic narrative of the career of Queen Elizabeth I's intelligence operative documents how he helped the monarch outmaneuver Catholic Spain and France by pioneering techniques that served to expose double agents, spread disinformation, and decipher codes. By the author of Battle of Wits. Reprint. 30,000 first printing.

For the armchair traveler or for those looking to take a trip back to the colorful time of Henry VIII and Thomas Moore,A Journey Through Tudor England takes you to the palaces,castles, theatres and abbeys to uncover the stories behind this famed era. Suzannah Lipscomb visits over fifty Tudor places, from the famous palace at Hampton Court, where dangerous court intrigue was rife, to less well-known houses such as Anne Boleyn’s childhood home at Hever Castle, or Tutbury Castle, where Mary Queen of Scots was imprisoned.In the corridors of power and the courtyards of country houses, we meet the passionate but tragic Katheryn Parr, Henry VIII’s last wife; Lady Jane Grey, the nine-day queen; and come to understand how Sir Walter Raleigh planned his trip to the New World. Through the places that defined them, this lively and engaging book reveals the rich history of the Tudors and paints a vivid and captivating picture of what it would have been like to live in Tudor England.

An accomplished English biographer, the author of The Six Wives of Henry VIII, presents a large-scale, exhaustively researched, illustrated biography that reveals the personality, private life, and romantic intrigues of Elizabeth I. Reader's Guide included. Reissue.

An unadulterated look at "Bloody Mary"--elder daughter of Henry VIII, Catholic zealot, and England's first and most murderous queen--argues that history has treated the much-maligned monarch unfairly.

Henry Stuart's life is the last great forgotten Jacobean tale. Shadowed by the gravity of the Thirty Years' War and the huge changes taking place across Europe in seventeenth-century society, economy, politics and empire, his life was visually and verbally gorgeous.

Lenox was one of 30 ships built in a program begun by King Charles II in 1677, in an effort to make a cost-effective vessel that sailed well and yet was strong enough to carry a heavy battery of guns; and the design was a success, remaining virtually unchanged for over 80 years. Endsor has deep experience with production and computer engineering, particularly for the aerospace industry, but he devoted time over a 12-year period to researching 17th-century ships and shipbuilding practices. He shares his knowledge (and his passion) in this oversize (10x12"), impressively illustrated volume dedicated to one particular ship's creation, service history, and reconstruction. Annotation ©2010 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

dust jacket torn at spine; exterior damage to cover at head of spine, but binding remains intact; crisp, clean pages