Knowing little about Queen Victoria, I was looking for a good biography. In "Queen Victoria" I hit the jackpot! This book strikes just the right balance between revealing the life of the private woman, wife, widow and mother and the Queen of her people, while giving the reader an insight into the public affairs of her time.

Victoria's life can be divided into four segments. The first is her youth during which she grew up with her mother after the death of her father. During this segment of her life, she was protected by her mother to the intense irritation of her uncle, King William IV. During this period, Victoria and her mother enjoyed a close relationship which was to terminate after Victoria's accession to the throne..

The second era of her life can be described as the Albert era. Although I greatly enjoyed the TV movie, "Victoria and Albert", I understood it much more after this movie. Albert, Victoria's first cousin and consort, is the one who really emerges as the star of the book. Although reluctant to marry Victoria, she clearly fell head over heels for him. After their wedding, Albert became Victoria's trusted confident and advisor, to the point of becoming the defacto monarch. Always "The Foreigner", Albert won the trust and admiration of British politicians, industrialists, commercial and social leaders. In domestic relations, Albert helped bring about a reconcillation between Victoria and her mother. As a businessman who reorganized Victoria's estates to multiply their return or a statesman molding Britain's foreign policy, Albert was superb. An example of the importance of his influence is found in his last diplomatic intervention during the Trent Affair. The Trent Affair was an incident in which the Trent, a British flag vessel, was stopped and searched by a ship of the United States Navy, which removed two Confederate agents. An incendiary protest was toned down by Albert to one which would lead to a peaceful solution, rather than to war. If Albert had died a month earlier, the United States may have either lost the South or won Canada.

The third segment of Victoria's life is her tragic widowhood. Totally dependent on Albert during his life, Victoria was devastated by his death. For years thereafter she almost totally withdrew from her royal duties, despite the efforts of her ministers to lure her back into public life.

During the fourth segment of her life, Victoria returned to public life as the mother of her country and grandmother of Europe. Emerging to the adulation of her people, Victoria resumed her rides through London, her tours of the Kingdom and the entertainment of her royal relations. During this period a major portion of her diplomacy was involved with her irritating grandson, Kaiser Wilhelm II.

This book certainly portrays Victoria as a Queen unlike those with which we are familiar. Not mere figureheads, Victoria and Albert were actively involved in public affairs. Among their surprising topics were dynastic relations and stipends for her children.

In this book we also get a glimpse at some of the political figures who Victoria loved and hated.

All things considered, this book is an excellent introduction to a most unique lady.

The age of Queen Victoria is frought with myths and legends about the woman and her court. Mrs. Woodham-Smith brings the era alive with a personalized look at the queen and the many goings on before, during and after her reign. There are many stories about her and her famous consort, Prince Albert. This book also brings to light the persons that shaped Queen Victoria. You will truely understand why this was the Victorian Era after reading this book.

A very in depth and intriguing view into the life and lifestyles of the children and grandchildren of the "grandmother of europe", Queen Victoria. If you are after something easy to read and digest but not too in depth,on a wide variety of royals, then Van der kiste is the author for you. I find his books to be very interesting to read as well as informative, which is a hard combination to find. Very good reading! Im on to his next book.

This is one of the best biographies of Queen Victoria that I have ever read! The author, Giles St. Aubyn, likes his subject and therefore makes the book sympathetic toward Victoria and greatly interesting to the reader.

This is a spellbinding work of historical fiction. A continuation of the Start saga, Jean Plaidy weaves an absorbing account of the reign of Queen Anne. Rich with historical detail, it captures the imagination of the reader until the very last page is turned.

When King William died, his sister-in-law, Anne, became Queen of England. Anne, however, was easily manipulated by her childhood friend, Sarah Churchill, now the Duchess of Marlborough. Power hungry, Sarah had her own agenda, and she manipulated the Queen to her own advantage. Viewed as the power behind the throne, Sarah was courted by many who sought her favor or intercession with the Queen.

Sarah, however, was brash, insensitive to others, and overly confident, faults that were to cloud her judgment. She also forgot her position and presumed too much when speaking to the Queen. It was as if the roles were reversed. When she ensconced her poor relation, Abigail Hill, in a position in the Queen's household, Sarah never suspected that quiet, shy Abigail could destroy all for which Sarah had connived.

This is a wholly absorbing and enjoyable work of fiction, replete with plots, intrigues, and political machinations.

Too often, we tend to view historical figures as just that -- figures from the past, shadowy and vague, human but not really. Yes, they lived and died, and perhaps accomplished some things, but do we have anything in common with them? Too often, we don't realize we do. But in "The Queen's Husband," Jean Plaidy brings Queen Victoria to a lush, colourful, fiery swirl of life and being. Plaidy probes into the heart and mind of a young Victoria as she falls in love with her future husband, Albert, more every day (yes, I know, it's a cliche...give me a break!). This pair had an all-encompassing love for each other that dwarfs much of what we see today in films and yes, that thing we call real life. And Plaidy brings each emotion and feeling to the surface, so that readers cannot ignore the passion these two shared. This book is not only a fascinatingly accurate historical novel, but it can also serve as an example of what love should be between two people. If the Queen of a whole country could do it -- why not us?

This eighth book in the "Queens of England" series by the author, a master storyteller also known to her legion of fans as Victoria Holt, focuses on the life of Lady Anne of York, daughter of the Earl of Warwick, who went on to become Queen of England as the wife of King Richard III. Her story, told in a first person narrative, is an absorbing work of historical fiction.

The War of Roses has ended and the great Earl of Warwick, the richest and most powerful lord in England, is known as the kingmaker for having ensured that the former Duke of York be crowned King Edward IV, after having deposed mad King Henry VI of the house of Lancaster. The Earl of Warwick's family, the Nevilles, are in positions of power. Then, the King marries Elizabeth Woodville, and it is the Woodvilles that are on the ascent and the Nevilles in decline. The Earl of Warwick, who had thought himself to be the power behind the throne, suddenly finds that he has supported a King who has every intention of being his own man. This is a notion that is anathema to Warwick, and he uses his two daughters, Isabel and Anne, as pawns in a dangerous game of political intrigue.

After her father's death in battle during a political falling out with King Edward IV, Anne goes on to marry the love of her life, the King's younger brother, Richard. Through her eyes the reader sees all the political intrigues of the day and the rise and fall of various personages, as the political winds shift. Despite all of the turbulence around her, Anne and Richard live many happy years in Northern England, far from the Court of King Edward IV.

When the King dies, her world radically changes. Richard, who was chosen to be Lord Protector of the Realm by his brother, chooses, instead, to declare his nephew, Edward V, illegitimate, and himself the King. What happens to his nephew, Edward V, as well as Edward's younger brother, remains a mystery to this day. Through Anne's eyes, we see her view her changing world with dismay and trepidation, as her husband changes into someone she barely recognizes, and she is thrust into a role for which she had no desire, that of Queen of England.

This is a wonderfully told work of historical fiction by a superlative storyteller. The reader need not have read the prior volumes in the series before reading this one. Each book in the series stands on its own. The entire series, however, is a must read for all those who enjoy well written, historical fiction.

They have to reprint this book one day - or perhaps the time is right to do a more indepth look at the lives of the Dukes - really this book and Dorothy Margaret Stuart's book "The Daughters of King George" are the only substantial books written on the children of King George III. (with the exception of the Prince Regency of course)

It is surprising there haven't been more books on the Royal Dukes,. their lives were rich with juicy scandal, (murders, gossip of incest, whippings, failed careers, prostitutes, secret marriages and scads of illegitimate children). Of course as Fulford also shows us their lives were also full of a great deal of excellent public service. The Duke of York in the army, Duke of Clarence (later William IV) the Navy, and the Duke of Cumberland in Hanover.

Fulford allows a chapter for each of the six Royal Duke's as well as one by way of an introduction of their parents, King George and Queen Charlotte, which includes some detail on their childhood and the dominance which the Dukes's father held over them throughout their adult lives.

This is an intelligent and entertaining look at The Royal House of Hanover, beautifully researched and humourously presented. A great little reference book.

This is a wonderful, captivating work of historical fiction. Weaving a spellbinding tale out of a tapestry of actual events, the author, Victoria Holt, writing under one of several pen names that she used, recounts the tragic and dramatic tale of Mary Stuart, Queen of Scots.

Born in Scotland, Mary, whose father, the King of Scotland, died when she was very young, was an only child. Her father's death left her mother, Marie De Guise of France, to rule as Regent in Scotland for her daughter. A wily woman, Marie saw danger to her daughter, if she remained in Scotland. So, she had Mary betrothed to Francois, the Dauphin of France, and sent her at a very young age to live in the French Court.

A happy, pleasing, and bonnie child, she matured into a beautiful young woman and eventually married the Dauphin. After the unexpected death of the King, she and Francois went on to reign as King and Queen of France. Alas, her happness was short lived, as Francois was sickly and in poor health. After his premature death, there was no place for Mary in the court of her brother-in-law, Charles, the succeeding French King, thanks to the machinations of her evil mother-in-law, Catherine D'Medici.

Mary then did the only thing left to do. She set sail for Scotland under the protection of border lord, James Hepburn, the Earl of Bothwell, to reclaim her kingdom as its anointed Queen. Her mother, Marie De Guise, now dead, the Catholic Mary was faced with reclaiming a Protestant kingdom that she had not seen for many years, a kingdom over which her half brother, the illegitimate and Protestant James, meant to rule himself, irrespective of his bastardy.

Little did Mary know of the travails that would await her. A quarrelsome group of lords and nobles, whose perfidy, deceit, and ruthless jockeying for power knew no bounds, would plague her brief reign. They would plot against her with her Protestant cousin in England, Elizabeth I, a Queen who ruled with her head and not with her heart. Mary's half brother, James, whose naked ambition was to wear the crown himself, was determined that Mary would be Queen in name only. He would stop at nothing to secure that which he felt was his by right, if not by birth. John Knox, a fire and brimstone religious fanatic, who held Scotland in his thrall, denounced the Catholic Mary at every opportunity, proclaiming her a wanton and rebuffing her overtures and requests for religious tolerance. This is what awaited Mary in Scotland, a harsh and most inhospitable land.

This woman, who would be Queen, eventually decided to marry again and made the greatest mistake of all in electing to marry the young and dissolute Lord Henry Darnley, an English Catholic. Though royal by birth, he would eventually bring nothing but shame upon her, plotting against her and those loyal to her. Darnley was the catalyst for some of the greatest scandals in the history of Scotland. Notwithstanding Darnley's perfidy, Mary did her duty and, having been delivered of an infant son fathered by Darnley, provided Scotland with an heir to the throne. She eventually became nothing more than a pawn in the ambitions of men, pitting Mary's half brother, James, now the Earl of Moray, against James, the Earl of Bothwell, one of Darnley's alleged murderers and Mary's seducer. It would be a fight to the finish.

With Darnley having died under mysterious circumstances and her passions now aroused, Mary married the Earl of Bothwell, much to the outrage of all of Scotland, and together incurred the emnity of many of the lords and nobles. This would lead to Bothwell's exile and captivity in Denmark, while Mary would flee to England, hoping to meet with Elizabeth and obtain her help in securing her kingdom. Instead, she would remain her cousin Elizabeth's captive for twenty years, being moved from castle to castle, as Mary's Catholic supporters plotted over the years to restore her kingdom to her.

Finally, these plots included the throne of England, and Elizabeth could no longer close her eyes to the threat that her still living cousin, Mary, an anointed Catholic Queen with a claim to the throne of Protestant England, presented. For her alleged treason, Mary would be tried, and the castle at Fotheringay would be the end of the line for her in the land in which twenty years earlier she had unwisely sought succor.

This is a spellbinding story, told with an infusion of historical detail. Those interested in the story of Mary, Queen of Scots, will, undoubtedly, enjoy this work of historical fiction. It is a fascinating tale of a historical figure whose life remains an intriguing enigma even today.