The definitive short biography of Theobald Wolfe Tone (1763–98), the founding father of Irish republicanism Originally published in 1981 as part of the groundbreaking Gill's Irish Lives series, Theobald Wolfe Tone (1763–98), A Life remains the most concise, accessible and authoritative introduction to one of Irish history's most seminal figures. Theobald Wolfe Tone, founder of the United Irishmen, revolutionary philosopher, nationalist martyr and, above all, legend of Irish history. For ge...

Revolution, the fourth volume of Peter Ackroyd's enthralling History of England begins in 1688 with a revolution and ends in 1815 with a famous victory.In it, Ackroyd takes readers from William of Orange's accession following the Glorious Revolution to the Regency, when the flamboyant Prince of Wales ruled in the stead of his mad father, George III, and England was – again – at war with France, a war that would end with the defeat of Napoleon at Waterloo.

The prime minister and Nobel Prize–winning historian begins his four-volume biography of the British statesman John Churchill, first Duke of Marlborough.In the first volume of this ambitious and stunningly written biography, Sir Winston S. Churchill discusses the early career and stratospheric rise of his illustrious, seventeenth century ancestor. John Churchill, the Duke of Marlborough, may have been eclipsed in history by his more well-known descendant, but in hi...

Mary (1662-94), daughter of James, Duke of York, heir to the English throne, then 15, is said to have wept for a day and a half when she was told she was to marry her cousin, William (1650-1702), son of William II of Orange (1626-50), Stadtholder of the Dutch republic, and Mary, eldest daughter of Charles I of England, who was eleven years older than her. In November 1677, on William's 27th birthday, they married in a private ceremony at St James's Palace. William was sole...

According to Wikipedia: "Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria; 24 May 1819 22 January 1901) was the Queen regnant of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837, and the first Empress of India of the British Raj from 1 May 1876, until her death. Her reign as the Queen lasted 63 years and 7 months, longer than that of any other British monarch before or since, and her reign is the longest of any female monarch in history. The time of her reign is known as the Victorian era, ...

A captivating journey through the transformative years of late Stuart and Georgian England, marked by political upheaval, cultural renaissance, and the birth of a mighty empire.In Revolution, Peter Ackroyd takes readers from William of Orange's accession following the Glorious Revolution to the Regency, when the flamboyant Prince of Wales ruled in the stead of his mad father, George III, and England was—again—at war with France, a war that would e...

The moving conclusion to the acclaimed multivolume biography of one of Britain's greatest military leaders by his Nobel Prize–winning descendant.The final installment in Winston S. Churchill's four-volume biography of John Churchill, the Duke of Marlborough—a famed military leader known for never having lost a military campaign. Despite his successes, Marlborough's later years were full of struggle—including attacks from political and personal enemies.Winst...

Admiral Lord Collingwood, the eldest son of a Newcastle merchant, went to sea in 1761 at the age of thirteen. In his nearly fifty years in the Navy he rose to become a fine seaman, a master of gunnery, a battle commander the equal of his friend – and rival in love – Nelson. He was also an accomplished writer and wit, a doting father, inveterate gossip and consummate diplomat and strategist.Collingwood's service took him to Boston, where he lived and fought during the American War o...

Built by the Romans, looted by the Danes and conquered by King William I (who devastated the town to build a castle and a cathedral), the city of Lincoln has had a long and most dreadful history. Containing medieval child murder, vile sieges of (and escapes from) the castle, the savage repression of the Lincolnshire rising by King Henry VIII (who had the ringleaders hanged, drawn and quartered) and plagues, lepers, prisons, riots, typhoid, tanks and terrible hangings by th...

The English Civil War is a subject of perennial interest. This book presents the 'essentials' of the conflict in the form of a readable chronological narrative, beginning with the causes of the war and ending with the execution of King Charles I. The author, who has been exploring battlefields for 50 years, describes the celebrated battles - including Edgehill, Marston Moor and Naseby - together with the major political events which characterized one of the most turbulent periods in Englis...

On 1 May 1820, outside Newgate Prison, in front of a dense crowd, five of the Cato Street conspirators—Arthur Thistlewood, William Davidson, James Ings, Richard Tidd and John Brunt—were hanged for high treason. Then they were decapitated in the last brutal act of a murderous conspiracy that aimed to assassinate Prime Minister Lord Liverpool and his cabinet and destroy his government. The Cato Street conspirators matched the Gunpowder plotters in their daring—and in their fate—but their dar...