Stuart

The Scapegoat: The Brilliant Brief Life of the Duke of Buckingham by Lucy Hughes-Hallett picks through the fragments of George Villiers, James VI & I’s favourite mistake.

The Lost Queen: The Surprising Life of Catherine of Braganza, Britain’s Forgotten Monarch by Sophie Shorland returns the consort to her rightful place in Restoration history.

All His Spies: The Secret World of Robert Cecil and Spycraft: Tricks and Tools of the Dangerous Trade from Elizabeth I to the Restoration bring Tudor and Stuart espionage in from the cold.

Highwaymen’s reputations plummeted in the 17th century. Once praised as heroes in the manner of Robin Hood, the media now lauded the brave bystanders who resisted them.

Following his accession, the majority of James I’s new English subjects accepted their Scottish king with ‘comforte and contentmente’. Such sentiments would not last.

Wills in early modern England tell us much more than simply who left what to whom, and should not be discarded lightly.

In the era of the early modern ‘secret state’, two notorious brothers set up an elaborate intelligence network, managing a vast array of spies and informers watchful for Jacobite plots against Britain.

Early modern fairy tale or urban legend? Who was London’s pig-faced lady and where did she come from?

When England’s search for a Northwest Passage via sea failed, an audacious plan to forge a land route was hatched by the Muscovy Company.

Emulating her godmother, Elizabeth I, Elizabeth Stuart captured hearts and minds as Europe burned.