Behind the Throne: A Domestic History of the Royal Household
£19.80£23.80 (-17%)
Behind the Throne is, above all, a history of family life.
They ate, entertained their friends and worried about money. Henry VIII kept tripping over his dogs. George II threw his son out of the house. James I had to cut back on the drink bills.
The great difference is that royal families had more help with their lives than most.
Charles I maintained a household of 2,000. Victoria’s medical establishment alone consisted of thirty doctors, three dentists and a chiropodist. Even today, Elizabeth II keeps a full-time staff of 1,200.
A royal household was a community, a vast machine. Everyone, from James I’s Master of the Horse down to William IV’s Assistant Table Decker, was there to smooth the sovereign’s path through life while simultaneously confirming their status.
Here, Adrian Tinniswood uncovers the reality of five centuries of life at the English court, taking you on a remarkable journey, exploring life as it was lived by clerks and courtiers and clowns and crowned heads.
Behind the Throne is a true domestic history of the royal household, a reconstruction of life behind the throne.
‘The most interesting and informative book on British royalty for many years’ Literary Review
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Additional information
| Publisher | Jonathan Cape (27 Sept. 2018) |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Hardcover | 384 pages |
| ISBN-10 | 191070282X |
| ISBN-13 | 978-1910702826 |
| Dimensions | 18.5 x 3.5 x 24 cm |
by Tracy
Very interesting book. Glad I bought it.
by Amazon Customer
Loved this book…it light to read and really explores those who make the Monarchs life a little easier.A great domestic history of looking after the Monarch and over 360 pages long.highly recommend
by Queen Ann
A well written and interesting book with not-so-known facts
by Rosamund Beauty
I love this book so much, the writer put so much effort into it. Very detailed and well edited book. I can’t put it down x
by BARRY HILL
I bought this for a friend but she says it was a good read
by john taggart
I’ll have to read this again to remember more of the wonderful anecdotes about the royal families since the time of Elizabeth1. You can feel the sheer dreary boredom of the Victorian court or stand astonished at the internal divisions of the Hanoverians that get repeated from generation to generation.
This is an entertaining book and is handsomely illustrated. I might have liked more details about the present royal family but that is just a thirst for up to date gossip! It might not compare with the gossip from previous ages anyway!
by Stephen Bishop
This book is a disappointment. It is meant to be about life in the royal household since the middle ages, in other words a detailed history of the support mechanism for monarchs – the complex arrangement of servants high and low within the household. Although there is some of this, for example in relation to the Middle Ages and also the beginning of Victoria’s reign, there is actually relatively little about those who worked in the household, even when, as for the latter years of Victoria’s reign, there is a huge amount of material available.
Much of the book is taken up with well-known anecdotes about the monarchs themselves – Queen Anne’s foibles, George IV’s delinquencies, the madness of George III and so on. Further into the book there is far too much about George V’s dogs, his stamp collecting, and later still Elizabeth II’s coronation (a photograph of a four-year-old Prince Charles looking bored at that event may be amusing, but is hardly relevant). Towards the end, the book descends into a summary of recent scandals affecting the monarchy, albeit with an emphasis on staff who spilt the beans.
The book has some good illustrations and is well-produced, although tighter editing might have removed some of the superficial throwaway comments.
by Amazon Customer
This book looks at the households of English and British royalty from Elizabeth I to Elizabeth II. It describes their extravagances, below stairs disputes. Particularly interesting are the insights into the behaviour of George III during his period of madness, the appalling behaviour of the Prince Regent – George IV. The book ends with the death of The Princess of Wales in 1997 and deals with the modern monarchy’s relationship with the media. Not an easy read, the style of writing doesn’t flow easily but worth persevering because it is well researched and deals with issues ordinary history books would not cover. I would say some knowledge of English history from 1558 to 1997 is necessary.