The Royal Stuarts

Ever since the descendants of the House of Stuart arrived in England they have been intimately linked with the history of Britain. Allan Massie, in this new Biography, traces their arrival, rise to the throne of England and Scotland, and scandals in their long and influential affair with British history.The Royal Stuarts ruled for over 300 years in Scotland and for a century as the Royal Family of Britain and Ireland. They were leading actors in the foremost political dramas of British history – the Scottish Wars of Independence, the Union of the Crowns, the English Civil War and the Restoration – and remain the most controversial and divisive of royal families. Drawing on the accounts of historians past and present, novels and plays, Allan Massie tells the family's full story, from the salt marshes of Brittany to the thrones of Scotland and England, and then eventual exile. A book which gets beyond the received generalisations, The Royal Stuarts takes us deep into the lives of figures like Mary Queen of Scots, Charles I and Bonnie Prince Charlie, uncovering a family of strong affections and fierce rivalries, the brave and capable, the weak and foolish. Told with panache and pace, adventurous and opinionated, this is a nuanced history of that remarkable family who, for better or worse, shaped our history and made our country what it is.