Books 2025 – on sale now – Killing Monarchs: Regicide in the Tudor and Stuart Age by Richard Heath



(c) Pen and Sword Books Ltd


Rulers (and would-be rulers) have always faced the possibility of a violent death. Between the seventh and eighteenth centuries over 20% of all British and European monarchs suffered such a fate. Some died in battle or in accidents but most of them were murdered or executed. During the time of the Tudors and Stuarts some monarchs were the victims of lone assassins, some were killed after palace coups led by relatives or royal officials, and others after being defeated in a civil war. Their manner of death included public beheading, internal injury as a result of a knife attack, being hacked down by a group of noblemen, and ritual strangulation with a silk cord. Killing Monarchs takes us on a journey across Europe. Starting in England and Scotland (Lady Jane Grey and Mary Queen of Scots), it moves to France (Kings Henry III and Henry IV), and then further east to Russia (Tsar Feodor II and various pretenders to the throne) and the Ottoman Empire (Sultans Osman II and Ibrahim I). It then returns to Britain to consider why Charles I was executed. It provides a clear picture of the various forces that existed in society at the time and these are reflected in the motives of the regicides – the killers of monarchs – even though many were not honest about them. The lust for power, the desire for a more effective leader, religious differences, and occasionally the wish to do away with monarchy altogether, all played a significant role.’

From Amazon.co.uk

Further details – Pen and Sword Books

Further details – Amazon.co.uk



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‘Women Who Ruled the World’ Interview with Elizabeth Norton


Elizabeth Norton is the author of ‘Women Who Ruled the World: 5000 Years of Female Monarchy’ which was published earlier this month.

Elizabeth’s previous works include ‘The Lives of Tudor Women’ and ‘The Temptation of Elizabeth Tudor.’


Buy ‘Women Who Ruled the World’:

Amazon.co.uk



Follow Elizabeth on social media:

Elizabeth Norton – historian
@enortonhistory.bsky.social
@ENortonHistory



Many thanks to Elizabeth for answering my questions.


(c) Footnote Press



Why did you choose this subject for your book?

I have always been interested in female power and was very struck by how recent female elected power is. The first female prime ministers (so, heads of government) only begin to appear from the 1960s, while the very first woman directly elected as a head of state (president) is still alive. This is Vigdís Finnbogadóttir, who was elected as President of Iceland in 1980 and remains an iconic, if not widely known, figure in women’s history. Obviously, there are many more female presidents now, but men still occupy approximately 90% of the world’s presidencies. Since female elected power is so recent, if we want to look at women being powerful in their own right we really have to look to the reigning queens or female kings of history. I wanted to look particularly at these women because, unlike consorts, queen mothers or regents, all of whom could be very powerful, these women did not wield power through a man. The reigning queens/female kings were heads of state in their own right and stood alone. I wanted to analyse how they gained or took power, how they acted and what pressures affected them. It was fascinating to see the same patterns repeated time and again.


What does your book add to previous works covering these women?

No one has ever looked solely at reigning queens/female kings before and they certainly haven’t looked at them globally and across all eras. I think this is something that makes the book very unique indeed. By comparing queens from Ancient Egypt with, say, Maria Theresia in the eighteenth century there are of course very significant differences, but there are also startling similarities. In no era or place was a woman welcomed as a ruler – almost all of the women in the book had to fight for what they achieved.

I think I have also added to understanding of what a reigning queen or a female king is. I was very surprised at how many people really struggled to identify what I meant by the term ‘reigning queen’ and I think this is a problem of language. Camilla is Queen of the UK and so was Elizabeth II, but the role they filled is very different. I’ve had people online insisting that I should have included Byzantine consorts – but that goes against the whole point of the book. Consorts, such as Theodora or Eleanor of Aquitaine could be very powerful, but they were still able to act, effectively, in the shadow of a man. Zenobia of Palmyra or Lili‘uokalani of Hawaii, amongst many others, did not have that luxury. They were, effectively, the face on the coins. In the book I make a case for calling these women female kings, a term which I think is much clearer. It probably won’t catch on in western Europe, although in some parts of the world, such as Georgia or Hungary the women they crowned were always kings and not queens.


How did you decide who to include?

This was really hard! There were so many women that I would have loved to include. It could easily have been four times as long. The book is thematic, so I was looking for a good geographical spread, as well as queens from different eras. There were some queens, such as Victoria, Elizabeth I, Isabel I of Castile and Cleopatra VII who are so well known that they had to be included. Others I felt had really interesting stories that deserved to be given more attention – Blanca II of Navarre is a case in point. Her story is actually quite similar to her niece, Juana ‘la Loca’ of Castile, who is much better known, but I decided to go with Blanca because I felt her life really illustrated the difficulties could be faced by a reigning queen. In Blanca’s case, she was imprisoned and probably murdered by her father, the king consort, who wished to remain in power and she was an incredibly strong example of the threat that many reigning queens faced from their male relatives.


What surprised you most researching this book?

My research was absolutely full of surprises. My most interesting find was probably the autobiographical works written by Japanese noblewomen in the tenth and eleventh centuries – long before the Norman conquest we know of a teenaged girl who was devoted to romance novels. This was interesting in itself, but it was also tied to the work carried out by Empress Suiko in promoting writing in Japanese.

I was also surprised by just how important the aura of royalty was. If you were royal, you were very much in an exclusive club. Lili‘uokalani of Hawaii, for example, could visit Queen Victoria in Britain and sit with the future Kaiser Wilhelm II at dinner, while she entertained Prince Alfred of Edinburgh in Hawaii. Even the monarchs of very small states were accepted, at least superficially, on equal terms. Pomare IV of Tahiti could appeal directly to Queen Victoria when threatened by French incursions, even if she only received drawing room furniture as a gift in response. The Queens of Tahiti, Hawaii and the United Kingdom very much recognised the commonality of their experience as monarchs.


Who was your favourite ‘female king’ to write about?

I want to say Elizabeth I, and it almost is. But, actually it is Tamar of Georgia, who was just the most remarkable ruler. Tamar was crowned as a junior king during her father’s lifetime, but found her accession as an independent monarch in 1184 very challenging. Almost no one was prepared to accept a reigning queen, with Tamar forced to cede power to her council and very nearly faced the end of her reign. She was also required to marry a Russian prince who quickly proved himself to be highly unsuitable. What I like about Tamar is that she is so representative of the struggles that reigning queens faced. She was entirely unwanted and only slowly managed to claw her way back to power. Eventually, she was able to take control of her court and divorce her husband and she is remembered as presiding over a golden age of Georgian culture, but it was at considerable personal cost. To paraphrase Ginger Rogers, she did everything a male ruler had to do, but she did it backwards and in high heels. She is absolutely fascinating and so little known in the west. I encourage everyone to go out and read more about Tamar.




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A good reason to buy BBC History Magazine…


(c) BBC History Magazine


The October issue of BBC History Magazine has an article by Tracy Borman that has the briefest mention of Lady Jane.

‘The lie of succession’ looks at ‘evidence that the transition from Tudor to Stuart dynasties may not have been quite as seamless as we’ve been led to believe.’ The article includes potential claimants to the throne and among them is Lady Katherine Grey and her descendants.



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Books 2025 – on sale today – The Stolen Crown: Treachery, Deceit and the Death of the Tudor Dynasty by Tracy Borman


(c) Hodder & Stoughton


‘In March 1603, Queen Elizabeth I, the last Tudor monarch, lies dying at Richmond Palace. The queen’s ministers cluster round her bedside, urging her to name her successor – something she has stubbornly resisted throughout her reign. Almost with her last breath she whispers that James VI of Scotland should succeed her. She dies shortly afterwards and the throne of England passes peacefully from Tudor to Stuart.

Or so we’ve been led to believe . . .

But, as enthralling new research shows, this is not what happened. In the years that followed, history was literally re-written on the orders of James VI to hide the truth: Elizabeth went to her grave without formally naming an heir. The notion of an approved succession from Tudors to Stuarts is little more than an elaborately constructed fiction.

And so James’s rule in England began with a lie – a lie that went on to have devastating consequences. The Stuart regime rapidly descended into turbulence and uncertainty, conspiracy and persecution, witchcraft and gunpowder – culminating in the destruction of the monarchy in the English Civil War.’

From Amazon.co.uk

Further details – Amazon.co.uk



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Books 2025 – on sale today – Women Who Ruled the World: 5000 Years of Female Monarchy by Elizabeth Norton


(c) Footnote Press


‘These are the stories of the female kings: women who risked everything, sometimes unwillingly, to find their place in a man’s world.

Female kings have always been a rarity, an oddity, or an undesirable outcome. In almost all places throughout the world a male ruler was preferred to a woman, with female inheritance vanishingly rare and frequently disputed. In spite of this, women have secured crowns – or fought for them – over several millennia.

From the lush oases of Ancient Egypt to the cherry blossomed lands of Japan, the machinations of the Tudor court to the far reaches of Pacific Island kingdoms, Women Who Ruled the World is an expansive and comprehensive history of female royal power.

Covering five millennia of global history, renowned historian Elizabeth Norton weaves together the stories of women rulers throughout the ages. Establishing beloved and already celebrated figures amongst those who have been left in the margins of history, Norton peels away the layers of time, geography and culture to reveal what it was to be a woman who ruled.’

From Amazon.co.uk

Further details – Amazon.co.uk



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