Customer Reviews

Mammoth Book of British Kings and Queens

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4 star:		(1)
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1 star:		(1)

 

 

This is an amazing book, it's very informative and gives all the information you need to know about British Kings and Queens (Plus More). It starts on some of the pre-roman leaders that we/they know about trying to destingress between myth and fact, then going on to the Roman emporer's and governers that ruled the country (part off). Then it goes on to all the small kingdoms from the SW corner of England and wales to the Islands of Scotland. Then gradually going on to the the bigger kingdoms and the uniting of the crowns to become Great Britain then the UK. These plenty of information, on all the monarchs, as well as sites with royal connections, royal family tree's with the connection's between them all (not just the traditional look, a very comprihensive one) and a full (as full as historians/fact know) list of all the monarchs ( and roman emporers and governers of britain) of the UK, with dates and notes. It also shows the Kings, Queens, Prince's, Duke's, leaders etc of other places, fron Norway to Anjou and France to Hanover for example.
This book has everything you need to know in it. A must have and if I could give it more stars I would.

First let me state that I love this book. I read it all the time, though I haven't come close to finishing it due to its size.

I love this book because it is interesting. It has every British ruler you can think of piled in there, from the most recent to the semi-mythological ones of bygone days. And this includes the ruling families of those who came to power in Britain. The most obscure rulers are covered.

The book is incredibly well indexed. I can find any ruler easier than it would be to look his name up alphabetically. Even better than that, I don't have to know the name of a ruler to find him. There are charts, graphs, geneological tables, maps, everything.

However, there is one major flaw with this book. As the "Royal Book of Records" in the beginning might suggest, the book might more be considered gossip than fact. The RBoR is fantastic, listining the Top 10 rulers for all sorts of things...strangest deaths, earliest marriages, most kids, you name it.
But the whole book kind of takes on this theme.

I would not have known that the book isn't the most reliable of sources if I hadn't gone and tried to use it on my papers for university (Dalriada, Pictland, Vikings, Anglo-Saxons mostly).
Which I did, and subsequently got marked off on. Every point that I cited with this book got marked off.
But I still can't help loving it.

I have not read this book, but those genealogists I trust have, and they report it to be full of errors. Apparently the author simply used older reference works rather than doing his own full research ... or even being familiar with recent published work. Thus, use the data in it only if you don't care if it is correct.

When I discovered my geneology search led me to the British Royal Line, I began seeking a good historical resource for further details. I was delighted to find detailed facts about members of the Royal line, along with clearly diagramed and written geneology which aided and enriched my search. This book turned out to be a terrific resource.

From the semi-legendary Beli the Great to Elizabeth the second, this book deals with many, many legends, battles, usurpations, and schisms. This book even gives astounding amounts of information about obscure and obsolete historical elements, such as the kings of Magonsaete. I found this as being my favourite history book of all time!

This is an essential Book of the British Monarchy that has helped me tremendously in doing research about all the Kings and Queens throught the history of Great Britain. It is thorough, well documented, it has essential maps and background information, not only about the Kings and Queens, but also about significant events throughout the history of this great nation. This is a book that reaffirms the importance of Great Britain in Western Civilization. The Kings and Queens from Alfred the Great to Elizabeth II are told with interesting form, as well as the Kings and Queens of Ireland, Wales, Scotland and major chieftans who had their own kingdoms in Britain during the early Middle Ages. An outstanding book that is an absolute must to anyone who wants to research the history of Great Britain.

I found this book of particular interest because I could go through it and compare the historical records of kings with the records left by Shakespeare. Macbeth, for example, was well-loved, and Richard III probably wasn't all that bad.

This book includes references to mythology and legend: there's an entry for Arthur, for example. It doesn't, however, accept that things are true because someone says so; it attempts to distinguish between fact and fancy. It's handy in that sense to have this book close at hand when reading historical fiction set in early England.

It's written from a definate British perspective, obvious because it cut's George III more slack than an American book would. Still, considering it's their monarchy, I guess they get to write the book.

Interesting both to history buffs and laymen. Not to be missed by Anglophiles.