Henry Robert Plomer's "A Short History of English Printing, 1476-1898" serves as a seminal exploration of the evolution of print in England, spanning over four centuries of technological and cultural transformation. Plomer meticulously catalogues the emergence of the printing press in the late 15th century, tracing its profound impact on literacy, literature, and the dissemination of knowledge. The book is characterized by its clear prose and analytical style, effectively marrying historic...

In "A Short History of English Printing, 1476-1898," Henry Robert Plomer meticulously chronicles the evolution of printing in England from its inception to the end of the nineteenth century. This work stands out for its clarity and scholarly rigor, demonstrating Plomer's extensive knowledge of both historical context and technological advancements in printing. Through detailed analysis, he explores the interplay between print technology and the societal transformations it spurred, marking ...

The extraordinary true story of the 'Red Queen'. Born in the midst of the Wars of the Roses, Margaret Beaufort became the greatest heiress of her time. She survived a turbulent life, marrying four times and enduring imprisonment before passing her claim to the crown of England to her son, Henry VII, the first of the Tudor monarchs. Margaret's royal blood placed her on the fringes of the Lancastrian royal dynasty. After divorcing her first husband at the age of ten, she married the king's h...

From the private world of a beloved English queen, a story of intimacy, royalty, espionage, rumor, and subterfugeQueen Elizabeth I acceded to the throne in 1558, restoring the Protestant faith to England. At the heart of the new queen's court lay her bedchamber, closely guarded by the favored women who helped her dress, looked after her jewels, and shared her bed.Elizabeth's private life was of public concern. Her bedfellows were witnesses to the face and bo...

Elizabeth Woodville is a historical character whose life no novelist would ever have dared invent. She has been portrayed as an enchantress, as an unprincipled advancer of her family's fortunes and a plucky but pitiful queen in Shakespeare's histories. She has been alternatively championed and vilified by her contemporaries and five centuries of historians, dramatists and novelists, but what was she really like?In this revealing account of Elizabeth's life...

Richard III is a paradox - the most hated of English kings, yet the most beloved, a deeply pious man, yet materialistic to the point of obsession, puritan, yet the father of at least two illegitimate children. This new biography concentrates on the much neglected early part of Richards life - from his birth in 1452 as a cadet of the House of York to his marriage to the beautiful Anne Neville - and shows how his experiences as the son of an ambitious duke, a prisoner of war, an exile, his k...

Antonia Fraser's bestselling account of the lives of women in seventeenth-century England.Just how weak were the women of the Civil War era? What could they expect beyond marriage and childbirth in an age where infant and maternal mortality was frequent and contraception unknown? Did anyone marry for love? Could a woman divorce? What rights had the unmarried? What expectations the widows?An expert on the period, Antonia Fraser brings to life the many and va...

Samuel Pepyss London was a turbulent, boisterous city, enduring the strains caused by foreign wars, the Great Plague and the Great Fire, yet growing and prospering. The Restoration in 1660 brought the reopening of the theatres, with women appearing on the stage for the first time, and the period saw the development of English opera and the first public concerts. Pepys lived through a time of change in a city of contrasts, which maintained a sophisticated cultural scene, yet was a focus for...

Did Richard, Duke of York, the younger of the Princes on the Tower, survive his imprisonment? In this revealing new book medieval historian David Baldwin presents an original and intriguing scenario.On 27 December 1550 an old man named Richard Plantagenet was buried at Eastwell in Kent. He had spent much of his life working as a bricklayer at St John's Abbey, Colchester, but, unusually for a bricklayer, he could read Latin. Reluctant to give any account of his back...

'Fascinating scholarship. Todd conveys Behn's vivacious character and the mores of the time' New York Times'All women together ought to let flowers fall upon the tomb of Aphra Behn; for it was she who earned them the right to speak their minds,' said Virginia Woolf. Yet that tomb, in Westminster Abbey, records one of the few uncontested facts about this Restoration playwright, poet of the erotic and bisexual, political propagandist, novelist and spy: the date of her death,...

Elizabeth Woodville, wife of Edward IV, mother of Elizabeth of York and the Princes in the Tower, and grandmother of Henry VIII, has been vilified and defended in turn. Was she a cunning enchantress, an ambitious advancer of her family’s fortunes, or a courageous and tragic figure who lost husbands, brothers and sons during this turbulent period? Discover the real story of the ‘White Queen’. Born into a family of Lancastrians, the exceptionally beautiful Elizabeth captured the heart of the...

This edition features• illustrations• a linked Table of Contents, Footnotes, and IndexCONTENTSThe Author to the ReaderThe Antiquity of LondonThe Wall about the City of LondonOf the Ancient and Present Rivers, Brooks, Bourns, Pools, Wells, and Conduits of Fresh Water serving the CityThe Town Ditch without the Wall of the CityBridges of this CityGates in the Wall of this CityOf Towers and CastlesOf Schools a...