Audiobooks by David Starkey

From one of our finest historians comes an outstanding exploration of the British monarchy from the retreat of the Romans up until the modern day.The monarchy is one of Britain's longest surviving institutions - as well as one of its most tumultuous and revered. In this masterful book, David Starkey looks at the monarchy as a whole, charting its history from Roman times, to the Wars of the Roses, the chaos of the Civil War, the fall of Charles I and Cromwell's emergence as Lord Protector - all the way up until the Victorian era when Britain's monarchs came face-to-face with modernity.This brilliant collection of biographies of Britain's kings and queens provides an in-depth examination of what the British monarchy has meant, what it means now and what it will continue to mean. Bringing to life a cast of colourful characters, Starkey's trademark energy and authority make him the perfect guide on this epic, accessible and compelling journey, as he offers us a vivid portrait of British culture, politics and nationhood through an institution that has defined the realm for nearly two thousand years.

David Starkey (Author), Jim Norton, Tim Pigott-Smith (Narrator)

Audiobook

Monarchy

David Starkey's 'Monarchy' charts the rise of the British monarchy from the War of the Roses, the English Civil War and the Georgians, right up until the present day monarchs of the 20th Century.With both authority and verve, David Starkey unmasks the personalities and achievements, the defeats and victories, that lie behind the monarchs that form the backbone of British history.This magisterial study begins with the Tudors - five monarchs who ruled over England and Ireland until the reformation of the 1530s - and continues with the Stuarts who followed them. It includes Oliver Cromwell, a non monarch, who ruled as Lord Protector, a 'king in all but name', and the Georgians, a dynasty that began with the accession of George I and ended with the death of George IV. Queen Victoria, the longest reigning monarch in British history, and, finally, our present day Queen, Elizabeth II, who today reigns over sixteen independent nations make up the book's latter stages.More important than this, 'Monarchy' encompasses the greatest and most notorious events in our history. From the War of the Roses to the infamous Gunpowder Plot, the bloody battles of the English Civil War to the madness of King George III, the Napoleonic Era to the heyday of Empire under Victoria, and finally to our present day Queen Elizabeth II,'Monarchy' offers a radical reappraisal of English nationhood, culture and politics, shown through the most central institution in English life. With characteristic insight and perceptiveness, Starkey gives new life to these figures, producing an entertaining and masterful picture of the building blocks upon which the England of today is built on.

David Starkey (Author), Jim Norton (Narrator)

Audiobook

Monarchy: From the Middle Ages to Modernity

The crown of England is the oldest surviving political institution in Europe. Throughout this book Dr David Starkey emphasises the Crown's endless capacity to adapt to circumstances and reshape national policy, whilst he unmasks the personalities and achievements, the defeats and victories, which lie behind the kings and queens of British history. Each of these monarchs has contributed to the religion, geography, laws, language and government which we live with today. Monarchy demonstrates exactly how these states were arrived at, how these monarchs subtly influenced each other, which battles were won and why, whose whim or failure caused religious tradition to wither or flourish, and which monarchs, through their acumen, strength and single minded determination, came to enforce the laws of England.

David Starkey (Author), David Starkey (Narrator)

Audiobook

Elizabeth

A brilliant and compelling account of the apprentice years of Elizabeth I.An abused child, yet confident of her destiny to reign, a woman in a man's world, passionately sexual yet - she said - a virgin, Elizabeth I was to be famed as England's most successful ruler. This absorbing new book, by concentrating on the early years from her birth in 1533 to her accession in 1558, shows how her experiences of danger and adventure formed her remarkable character and shaped her opinions and beliefs.For in her youth she had experienced every vicissitude of fortune and every extreme of condition. She had been Princess and inheritrix of England - then bastardized and disinherited. At sixteen she was the head of a great princely household. Not much later she was an accused traitor on the verge of execution in the Tower. Among all this, she had been taught the most advanced curriculum of the day. But it was her lessons in the school of life that mattered more - and that taught her humanity.Dr David Starkey recreates a host of extravagant characters, mad-cap schemes and tragic plots, while using original documents to point up the importance of the rituals of power and life at court. He writes with admirable clarity about religion and constitutional history. This brilliant book contrasts the daughters of Henry VIII: the pious Catholic Mary and her clever sister. The key to understanding Elizabeth is her determination not to make the same mistakes as Mary.

David Starkey (Author), Patricia Hodge (Narrator)

Audiobook

The Monarchy of England

The thrilling launch of David Starkey's new mammoth venture - MONARCHY: three books linked to 18 hours of television on the Kings and Queens of England. Volume 1 The Early Kings covers the retreat of the Romans from Britain in 410 to the fall of the House of Lancaster in the middle of the 15th century.MONARCHY is more than the biographies of the kings and queens of England. It isan in-depth examination of what the English monarchy has meant, in terms of the expression of the individual, the Mother of Parliaments, Magna Carta, the laws of England and the land of England. This is the history of ideas and ideals, as well as colourful characters, brought to life by David Starkey's unique gifts as a communicator. David Starkey's scholarship combines with his engaging and popular style to produce another winner.The importance of the rich heritage of the Anglo-Saxon kings is underlined and among the kings most heavily featured are: Alfred the Great, Canute, Edward the Confessor, William the Conqueror, Henry II, Richard the Lionheart, and Henry III. The last king featured in this volume is Henry VI.

David Starkey (Author), Tim Pigott-Smith (Narrator)

Audiobook

Six Wives

What makes a man marry six times? Was Henry VIII a voracious philanderer? On the contrary, says Dr David Starkey, the King was seeking happiness - as well as hoping for a son.The first of his wives was Catherine of Aragon, the pious Catholic princess who suffered years of miscarriages and still births and yet failed to produce a male heir.As Henry VIII's interest shifted from her powerful Hapsburg relations and drifted towards France, so began his obsession with the pretty Lutheran Anne Boleyn.Jane Seymour's submissiveness was in contrast to Anne's vampish style - and Henry married her on the day of Anne's execution. Jane died soon after giving birth to the longed-for son.There followed a farcical 'beauty contest' which ended in the short marriage of the now grossly overweight Henry to 'the mare of Flanders', Anne of Cleves.The final part of Six Wives contrasts the two Catherines - Catherine Howard, the flirty child whose adulteries made a fool of the ageing King, and Catherine Parr, the shrewd, religiously radical bluestocking.

David Starkey (Author), Patricia Hodge (Narrator)

Audiobook