A leading French historian reviews the reigns, deeds, and misdeeds of France's sovereigns - both famous and infamous - from the Merovingians of the fifth century to the abdication of Louis Philippe in 1848.

"Royalty has always been the object of intense curiosity; and even the most trivial detail in the everyday life of any royal figure continues to fascinate posterity, century after century. Gathered here is a rich and extraordinarily varied collection of anecdotes which literally breathes life into reigns that are now sometimes forgotten, or sometimes remembered for infamy, but were also sometimes magnificent. Kings and queens are observed firsthand--by their contempoaries and by each other. Compassion, sarcasm, wit and perception are mingled in the accounts of the rulers' public and private lives. From the first Capet reign...to the Bourbons, ladies-in-waiting and soldiers, courtiers and poets, ambassadors and footmen have left a stunning record unlike any other, broughts together here in one of the most remarkable works ever created on royalty."--Publisher's description.

This collection examines the afterlives of early modern English and French rulers. Spanning five centuries of cultural memory, the volume offers case studies of how kings and queens were remembered, represented, and reincarnated in a wide range of sources, from contemporary pageants, plays, and visual art to twenty-first-century television, and from premodern fiction to manga and romance novels. With essays on well-known figures such as Elizabeth I and Marie Antoinette as well as lesser-known monarchs such as Francis II of France and Mary Tudor, Queen of France, Remembering Queens and Kings of Early Modern England and France brings together reflections on how rulers live on in collective memory.

A compendium of illustrated biographies of the British monarchs, revised throughout and updated to include the recent history of the Windsors.

This sumptuous catalogue provides an overview of French art circa 1500, a dynamic, transitional period when the country, resurgent after the dislocations of the Hundred Years' War, invaded Italy and all media flourished. What followed was the emergence of a unique art: the fusion of the Italian Renaissance with northern European Gothic styles. Outstanding examples of exquisite and revolutionary works are featured, including paintings, sculptures, illuminated manuscripts, stained glass, tapestries, and metalwork. Exciting new research brings to life court artists Jean Fouquet, Jean Bourdichon, Michel Colombe, Jean Poyer, and Jean Hey (The Master of Moulins), all of whose creations were used by kings and queens to assert power and prestige. Also detailed are the organization of workshops and the development of the influential art market in Paris and patronage in the Loire Valley.

During the Renaissance, the monarchy became the dominant ruling power in Europe. It was an era of formidable kings and queens who crushed the feudal rights of their nobles, defended the Catholic Church against the encroachments of Protestantism, fought self-aggrandizing wars and were great patrons of art, architecture, literature and music. This work chronicles the lives and reigns of the 42 monarchs in England, Scotland, France, Spain and the Holy Roman Empire between 1400 and 1600, presenting in the context of their era their personalities, accomplishments and failures.