Radegund: The Trials and Triumphs of a Merovingian Queen (WOMEN IN ANTIQUITY)
Paperback – 18 July 2023 (US) & 3 September 2023 (UK)
Radegund presents a new interpretation of this remarkable woman, examining her vibrant life and legacy. E. T. Dailey shows how she succeeded in establishing a place for herself within this difficult and dangerous world, despite the trials she faced. He also demonstrates how Radegund achieved a position of prominence as a woman in a foreign land without resorting to the violence and intrigue that characterized the lives of other prominent women during this period. Based on a wealth of English, French, and German scholarship, this book will equip experts and lay readers with a concise, authoritative, and accessible portrait of Radegund.
Henry VIII’s Children: Legitimate and Illegitimate Sons and Daughters of the Tudor King
Hardcover – 30 July 2023 (US) & 5 May 2023 (UK)
Of the five Tudor monarchs, only one was ever born to rule. While much of King Henry VIII’s reign is centered on his reckless marriage choices, it was the foundations laid by Henry and Queen Katherine of Aragon that shaped the future of the crown. Among the suffering of five lost heirs, the royal couple placed all their hopes in the surviving Princess Mary. Her early life weaves a tale of promise, diplomacy, and pageantry never again seen in King Henry’s life, but a deep-rooted desire for a son, a legacy of his own scattered childhood, pushed Henry VIII to smother Mary’s chance to rule. An affair soon produced an unlikely heir in Henry Fitzroy, and while one child was pure royalty, the other illegitimate, the comparison of their childhoods would show a race to throne closer than many wished to admit.
The Hats of the Queen
Hardcover – 11 July 2023 (US) & 8 June 2023 (UK)
The Hats of the Queen examines 50 iconic headpieces adorned by the Queen during her reign, uncovering the royal, political, and fashion landscape of the time. In her 70 years in power, Queen Elizabeth II has made her mark on history, navigating the ups and downs of the past century, and wearing many hats – literally and figuratively. In 1933, little Elizabeth, sits in a carriage alongside her grandfather King George V, wearing a round, pink hat hemmed with flowers. In 2020, the year the world fell into crisis with the covid pandemic, the sovereign dons a very similar hat. Nearly 100 years have passed between these two images, a century of politics, diplomacy, and fashion, which is told, in these pages, through the little-known story of the Queen’s hats. With a foreword by royal correspondent Alastair Bruce, The Hats of the Queen is a beautiful and informative look back on the life and times of her majesty through these iconic accessories.
Charles II’s Illegitimate Children: Royal Bastards
Hardcover – 30 July 2023 (UK) & 30 September 2023 (US)
Charles II had at least twelve illegitimate children that we know of. Although his queen, Catherine of Braganza, fell pregnant several times she was not able to bear any children to full term. The king, who was known for his many mistresses, had his first recognised child out of wedlock in 1649; the child was James Croft who would become Duke of Monmouth and mastermind of an infamous rebellion. Not all of his children would gain such notoriety but they would live long and full lives creating a Stuart bloodline that descends to the present day.
Mortal Monarchs: 1000 Years of Royal Deaths
Paperback – 6 July 2023 (UK) & 31 October 2023 (US)
How the monarchs of England and Scotland met their deaths has been a wonderful mixture of violence, infections, overindulgence and occasional regicide. In Mortal Monarchs, medical historian Dr Suzie Edge examines 1,000 years of royal deaths to uncover the plots, accusations, rivalries, and ever-present threat of poison that the kings and queens of old faced.
Lady Katherine Grey: A Dynastic Tragedy
Hardcover – 13 July 2023 (UK)
In 1601, as the reign of Elizabeth I drew to a close, the civil lawyer Thomas Wilson identified the prevailing uncertainty over the English succession: ‘upon whose head it will fall is by many doubted’. During the first decade of the last Tudor monarch’s reign, however, Lady Katherine Grey, great-granddaughter of the first Tudor king, Henry VII, and sister of the ill-fated Lady Jane, was widely viewed as the heir to Elizabeth’s throne, especially by Protestants hostile to the prospect of a Catholic succession.
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