White King

White King

Charles I, Traitor, Murderer, Martyr

Summary

Brought to you by Penguin.

Winner of the HWA Crown for Best Work of Historical Non-Fiction 2018

Times Book of the Year 2018

Less than forty years after the golden age of Elizabeth I, England was at war with itself. The bloody, devastating civil wars set family against family, friend against friend. At the head of this disintegrating kingdom was Charles I. His rule would change the face of the monarchy for ever.

Charles I’s reign is one of the most dramatic in history, yet Charles the man remains elusive. Too often he is recalled as weak and stupid, his wife, Henrietta Maria, as spoilt and silly: the cause of his ruin. In this portrait -- informed by newly disclosed manuscripts, including letters between the king and his queen -- Leanda de Lisle uncovers a Charles I who was principled and brave, but also fatally blinkered. He is revealed as a complex man who pays the price for bringing radical change; Henrietta Maria as a warrior queen and political player as impressive as any Tudor. Here too are the cousins who befriended and betrayed them: the peacocking Henry Holland, whose brother engineered the king’s fall; and the magnetic ‘last Boleyn girl’, Lucy Carlisle.

This is a tragic story for our times, of populist politicians and religious war, of a new media and the reshaping of nations, in which women vied with men for power. For Charles it ended on the scaffold. Condemned as a traitor and murderer, he was also heralded as a martyr: his reign destined to sow the seeds of democracy across Britain and the New World.

Reviews

  • A revelation... White King is that rare thing, a page-turning history that gently but insistently also asks provocative questions about a period on which our opinions have been all too fixed. Charles does not emerge with his reputation restored, but he emerges whole
    Mathew Lyons, Financial Times

About the author

Leanda de Lisle

Leanda de Lisle is the highly acclaimed author of several bestselling and prize-winning books on the Tudors and Stuarts including Tudor: The Family Story and White King: The Tragedy of Charles I. She writes and speaks on historical matters for TV, radio and publications including The Times, the Spectator and History Today.
Learn More

Sign up to the Penguin Newsletter

For the latest books, recommendations, author interviews and more