Kings & Queens of England: Murder, Mayhem, and Scandal : 1066 to the Present Day

Rating:
Summary: A right royal scandal...
Review: The history of the British Royal Family extends well past 1000 years ago, but for a long time, the date of 1066 has had pride-of-place as the demarcation of the 'proper' lineage, and Brenda Ralph Lewis' book on the kings and queens of England follows suit. Lewis does not pretend to give an extensive or in-depth history here - this being a book with the Reader's Digest imprimatur, it is as one might expect, a summary and overview of the highlights of the reigns. This is not to say that Lewis gives short shrift or lack of attention to her subjects - far from it! But she does concentrate on the highlights (and lowlights) of each subject, focusing a bit more on the more headline-worthy aspects of each reign, as one might expect from the subtitle of the book, 'Murder, Mayhem, and Scandal: 1066 to the Present Day'.

Scandal and attention-getting intrigue is hardly the province of the current generations of the British Royal Family. Indeed, compared to some of their predecessors, the current crop of royals can be considered rather mild in many respects. Lewis details the intrigues around many dynastic shifts - the Wars of the Roses, the race for an heir to George IV, etc. - as well as some of the personal battles - the aforementioned George's ongoing battle with his wife, Caroline, the 'Injured Queen of England', the current Queen's 'annus horibilis', and finally the Charles and Diana split, ending with Diana's death, the point at which Lewis' book on murder, mayhem and scandal concludes.

One gets a bit of a distorted view of the royals from this text, in that one wonders if there is any merit at all in any of the lot for the past 1000 years. In fact, Lewis holds up various figures for their virtues, sometimes against type-casting: Queen Mary Tudor, the first queen to reign in her own right, is nicknamed by history as 'Bloody Mary', but Lewis points out that, in her own time, she was known as a kind-hearted and long-suffering woman. However, there is more than enough juicy gossip to keep the narrative going for several times the page number allotted to this text, so Lewis necessarily had to be selective in her presentation. This is, of course, the story of the English monarchs, so the various tales of the Scottish, Welsh and Irish leaders are only drawn in as they impact the English 1066 - present standard lineage.

Each page is generously illustrated with full-colour photographs, paintings, diagrams, charts and other graphic images. Not a single page is without an image and colour. The text is also laid out in such as way as to make reading very easy and pleasant, with bold face, pull-quote boxes, and other such devices employed throughout. This will make reading a history text much more palatable to younger readers - this text will be of interest to secondary school students and beyond.

There is a useful index, but it is a bit incomplete. The genealogy charts are also drawn so as to focus only upon the key figures in the drama, rather than the whole family, so readers hoping for more complete information in that regard should look to the Oxford History of the British Monarchy, or one of books by Antonia Fraser, among others. However, despite these minor flaws, the book is fun to read - one gets the sense that, had the popular press been around throughout the history of the royals, this would be very much what the stories and headlines would have looked like.