Early modern history: c 1450/1500 to c 1700
Showing all 12 results
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Heirs of ambition
£20.00Heirs of ambition
This book explores how the Boleyn family were able to go from being Norfolk farmers to aristocracy at a time when it was unheard of for families to do so
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Henry VIII
£7.99Henry VIII
Henry VIII’s reign transformed the physical and spiritual landscape of England. Magnificent, tyrannical, a strong ruler, a ‘pillager of the commonwealth’, this most notorious of kings remains a figure of extreme contradictions: a devout traditionalist who oversaw a cataclysmic rupture with the church in Rome; a talented, charismatic, imposing figure who nevertheless could not bear to meet people’s eyes when he talked to them. In this revealing new account, John Guy explores how Henry himself understood the world and his place in it – from his sheltered and increasingly isolated upbringing and the blazing glory of his accession; to his desperate quest for recognition, fame and an heir, and the terrifying paranoia of his last, agonising, 54-inch-waisted years – and in doing so casts new light on his choice of wives and ministers, his impact on the European stage, and his extraordinary legacy.
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Much ado about numbers
£16.99Much ado about numbers
What’s the connection between Shakespeare and maths? A lot, as it turns out! Shakespeare grew up in a time of remarkable mathematical innovation. From astronomy to probability, music to multiplication, new mathematical ideas were taking off – and much of this was reflected in his work. In this book, Rob Eastaway explores the surprising and entertaining ways that maths and numbers crop up in Shakespeare’s plays.
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Newton’s notebook
£12.99Newton’s notebook
Newton’s Notebook is a biography of the great man, but a biography with a difference
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The fall
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The lost queen
£25.00The lost queen
Despite Catherine of Braganza’s crucial place in British history, and that of its Empire, she has since been overshadowed by stories of the king’s many mistresses and forgotten as Charles’ boring, powerless wife. This could not be further from the truth. In an absorbing narrative, historian Sophie Shorland not only tells the full story of this long-overlooked figure and her difficult relationship with Charles II, but also reveals how Catherine changed the country in ways both large and small: part of her dowry was Bombay, Britain’s first territory on the Indian subcontinent; she also popularised trousers for women, Baroque art and music, and – perhaps most long-lastingly – tea drinking.
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The other Renaissance
£12.99The other Renaissance
It is generally accepted that the European Renaissance began in Italy. However, a historical transformation of similar magnitude also took place in northern Europe at the same time. This ‘other Renaissance’ was initially centred on the city of Bruges in Flanders (modern Belgium), but its influence was soon being felt in France, the German states, England, and even in Italy itself. Following a sequence of major figures, including Copernicus, Gutenberg, Luther, Catherine de Medici, Rabelais, van Eyck and Shakespeare, Paul Strathern tells the fascinating story of how this ‘other Renaissance’ played as significant a role as the Italian renaissance in bringing our modern world into being.
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The Princes in the Tower
£25.00The Princes in the Tower
Not to be missed, Philippa Langley and her international team untangle a 500-year-old mystery to reveal the fate of the Princes of the Tower.
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The waiting game
£22.00The waiting game
Who taught Catherine of Aragon English, helped Anne Boleyn get dressed in the morning, discussed sex with Anne of Cleves, or pushed religious revolution with Kathryn Parr? Every queen had ladies-in-waiting. Her confidantes and chaperones, they are the forgotten agents of the Tudor court. Ever present and yet hidden behind the scenes, these women held the secrets and the hearts of some of the Tudor period’s most powerful men and women. Experts at survival, negotiating the competing demands of their families and their queen, the ladies-in-waiting of Henry VIII’s wives were far more than decorative ‘extras’: they were serious political players who changed the course of history, and four of them became queen themselves. ‘The Waiting Game’ is the first to tell their story.
£22.00