The tales of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table are among the best-known stories in the world, but they are often relegated to the realm of legend. However, Arthur was a man, not a myth. In this book, acclaimed historian Christopher Hibbert vividly brings to life the sixth-century British monarch and his extraordinary court.

Christopher Hibbert’s acclaimed biography of Queen Victoria is as impressive and authoritative as the great woman herself.In 1837 an eighteen-year-old girl, raised by a German mother, inherited the throne of the United Kingdom. She was to reign as queen – and later Empress of India – for almost sixty-four years, presiding over twenty prime ministers and a period of unprecedented social and political change. Her era became synonymous with moral rigidity and colonial expansion, and t...

‘There is no one-volume book in print that carries so much valuable information on London and its history’ Illustrated London NewsThe London Encyclopaedia is the most comprehensive book on London ever published. In its first new edition in over ten years, completely revised and updated, it comprises some 6,000 entries, organised alphabetically, cross-referenced and supported by two large indexes – one for the 10,000 people mentioned in the text and one general – a...

Had the camp been allowed to award one VC, the recipient of that honour would have been Arthur Lang, and that by universal acclamation... In September1857, an inexperienced young Engineer officer, was given what turned out to be a key role at the turning point of the Indian Mutiny. He had to decide weather the breaches at the Kashmere bastion were wide enough to allow for the attack, and had then lead the assault on himself. To those who saw him then, 'fighting like a paladin,' through the...

At its height Renaissance Florence was a centre of enormous wealth, power and influence. A republican city-state funded by trade and banking, its often bloody political scene was dominated by rich mercantile families, the most famous of which were the Medici. This enthralling book charts the family’s huge influence on the political, economic and cultural history of Florence. Beginning in the early 1430s with the rise of the dynasty under the near-legendary Cosimo de Medici, it moves throug...

A portrait of Napoleon Bonaparte, the Duke of Wellington, and the fateful clash of their armies in 1815 from "a remarkably good writer" ( The New York Times). It was the greatest of battles—the defining military engagement of the nineteenth century that forever ended one man's dreams of a European empire unified under his rule. This epoch-defining conflict would ultimately be remembered for the showdown between two of history's most legendary com...

Here, the eminent historian Christopher Hibbert explores life in Victorian England, a time when the British Empire was at its height, when the prosperous English basked in the Pax Britannica and thought their progress and stability would go on forever.

There can be few military victories so complete, or achieved against such heavy odds, as that won by Henry V on 25 October 1415 against Charles VI's army at Agincourt. In the words of one contemporary French chronicler, it was the 'most disgraceful event that had ever happened to the Kingdom of France'.Christopher Hibbert's wonderfully concise account draws on the unusual number of contemporary sources available to historians to describe in lucid detail not only what happened, but ...

This social as well as a military history recreates the scenes of civil war in England, between 1642 and 1649.The book is enlivened by character sketches not only of the leading participants (Charles I, Prince Rupert, Oliver Cromwell), but also of the numerous lesser characters, male and female, who took part in the desperate conflict. Families and friends were bitterly divided as men left home to fight for King or Parliament. Castles and towns were besieged and sacked. Houses were...

A masterly biography of Napoleon, concentrating on his private life, by the historian described by Stella Tillyard as ‘a master portraitist of great men’s private lives’ and by Amanda Foreman as ‘one of England’s greatest living historical writers’.Modern history has produced one single myth on a heroic scale to rival those of Alexander and Caesar – that of Napoleon. The continuing fascination of this astonishingly gifted man is reflected in the number of books published each year ...

Disraeli is one of the most fascinating men of the 19th century. This masterly biography, written by an outstanding popular historian, concentrates on his intriguing private life.Superb politician, orator, writer and wit, Benjamin Disraeli was – according to Queen Victoria – ‘the kindest Minister’ she had ever had, who ‘reached the top of the greasy pole’ [in his own words] despite considerable antisemitism. He enjoyed many scandalous affairs before marrying a widow twelve years ol...

An intimate biography of the king who started the English Civil War—"An excellent account . . . balanced and perceptive in outlook . . . well-written and entertaining" ( Economist ).When Charles Stuart was a young child, it seemed unlikely that he would survive, let alone become ruler of England and Scotland. Once shy and retiring, he grew in stature and confidence under the guidance of the Duke of Buckingham; his marriage...