Of Kings & Commoners is a magical mix of fact and fiction, comprising delightful stories from Indian history accompanied by a factual account of the period in which they're set. �Illustrated by a leading Indian children's illustrator. � Ages 13 to 16 years.
A cornucopia of games, positions, biographies, mysteries, howlers, reviews, quotations, etc., featuring a cast of hundreds from the chess world of today and yesteryear -- the champions and the under-achievers; the scholars and the bunglers; the saints and the sinners. Every page provides fascinating, little-known material from an author who is prepared to name names.
King and Commoner tales were hugely popular across the late medieval and early modern periods, their cultural influence extending from Robin Hood ballads to Shakespearean national histories. This study represents the first detailed exploration of this rich and fascinating literary tradition, tracing its development across deeply politicized fifteenth-century comic tales and early modern ballads. The medieval King and Commoner tales depict an incognito king becoming lost in the forest and encountering a disgruntled commoner who complains of class oppression and poaches the king’s deer. This is an upside-down world of tricksters, violence, and politicized feasting that critiques and deconstructs medieval hierarchy. The commoners of these tales utilize the inversion of the medieval carnival, crowning themselves as liminal mock kings in the forest while threatening to rend and devour a body politic that would oppress them. These tales are complex and ambiguous, reimagining the socio-political upheaval of the late medieval period in sophisticated ruminations on class relations. By contrast, the early modern ballads and chapbooks see the tradition undergo a conservative metamorphosis. Suppressing its more radical elements amid a celebration of proto-panoptical kings, the tradition remerges as royalist propaganda in which the king watches his thankful subjects through the keyhole.
“An excellent account” of Britain’s tradition of parceling out land for the public to grow food on, and the colorful history behind it (The Independent). This lively book tells the story of the private garden plots known as allotments—from their origin in the seventeenth century, when new enclosures that deprived the peasantry of access to common lands were fiercely protested, to the victory gardens of the world wars, and into the present day, when they serve less as a means of survival than as a respite from the modern world. While delving into the effects of the Napoleonic Wars, the Corn Laws, and the utopian dissenters known as the Diggers, the author reveals the multiple roles of allotments—and champions their history in the hope of protecting them for the future. “Foley’s book reminds us that the right to share the earth has always been an asymmetric struggle.” —The Guardian “Fascinating and handsomely illustrated.” —Daily Mail “Well-told . . . . [a] gallop through the history of useful rather than ornamental crops.” —Spectator Australia
Philip Ardagh's Book of Kings, Queens, Emperors and Rotten Wart-Nosed Commons is hilarious collection of fantastic trivia and amazing facts about royalty and rulers of all kinds throughout history, all from the very witty pen of Philip Ardagh. PARP!" Pssst! Do you know the story about Queen Elizabeth I (1533-1603) and the, er, farting courtier? One day, when bowing low to Her Majesty, the Earl of Oxford couldn't help but break wind. The poor man felt SO embarrassed that he left the court - and some say the country - for SEVEN years. Upon his return, after such a long absence, the first thing Good Queen bess said on seeing him was, "Lord, I had forgot the fart!
This is the new Third Edition of Royalty for Commoners, the first book ever to document the complete known genealogy of John of Gaunt, son of King Edward III & Queen Philippa. The importance of this documentation is that any commoner who can connect his or her own family lineage to that of John of Gaunt can now be shown to share the same basic royal heritage as the most noble knight-the complete heritage, not just the Plantagenet ascent. This is the usual lineage through which a commoner can enter the domain of European royalty, though one might enter the lineage at any number of points. Typically, the American descendant has several colonial ancestors, one or more of whom can be traced to European beginnings. Using over 2,000 published sources, as well as the spectacular resources of the Internet, Mr. Stuart here offers the researcher a host of possibilities, pointing the reader to numerous descents of which he may be completely unaware. This new Third Edition is a nearly complete reworking of previous editions & includes the following changes. * Two dozen lines have been lengthened * Sources now include dates of publication * There are two indexes rather than one, an every-name index & an index of royal titles * Research now ventures into the years before Christ * The Bibliography has been significantly refined & expanded
“A writer with . . . vision and scope . . . breathtaking, shimmering prose.”—Anne Rice The armies of Charlemagne are poised to conquer Italy. The human side of shapeshifter Maeniel owes allegiance to Charlemagne. But the wolf acknowledges no master. Still, it is as both wolf and man that he embarks on a hazardous mission for the emperor. Captured, Maeniel is condemned to death. Now, with the help of a Saxon warrior whose love poses dangers of its own, Maeniel’s soul mate, Regeane, will brave the icy crags and crevices of the Alps to rescue her husband, only to find that he is the bait in a trap set for her by a villainous man from her darkest past. But there is another enemy at work. Behind the tangle of ambitions and animosities driving kings and commoners alike, an ancient evil thirsts for a revenge of its own: a revenge that demands the blood of Maeniel and Regeane…and of all humanity. “Action and intrigue-filled . . . Borchardt’s strength . . . is her deeply researched setting, which brings alive the barbaric era after the fall of the Roman Empire.”—Publishers Weekly
"It is difficult to decide which is the more impressive: the authority and control with which Mr. Bendix writes of the traditions, the institutions, and the technological and social developments of cultures as diverse as the British, French, German, Russian, and Japanese, or the skill with which he weaves his separate stories into a persuasive scenario of the modern revolution. A remarkable achievement."--Gordon A. Craig, Stanford University ""Kings or People" is equal to the grandeur of its subject: the political origins of the modern world. With Barrington Moore's "Social Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy" and Immanuels Wallerstein's "The Modern World System" which it matches in boldness, while differing radically in perspective, it is one of the truly powerful ventures in comparative historical sociology to have appeared in recent years."--Clifford Geertz "A brilliant achievement that will be equally fascinating for the general reader, the student, and the specialized scholar."--Henry W. Ehrmann