5,000 Years of Royalty: Kings, Queens, Princes, Emperors & Tsars

by Thomas J. Craughwell

Conflict. Glory. Romance. Tragedy. Bloodshed. No matter the era, the lives of the men and women who have wielded power and controlled destinies make for fascinating reading.

5,000 Years of Royalty compiles the rich pageant of history into a lushly illustrated, accessible guide that will delight both the amateur historian and inveterate royal watcher alike. Profiles include:

The Assyrian warrior king Ashurbanipal, who hitched the kings of four nations to his chariot for a victory parade;

Montezuma, who was stoned to death by his Aztec subjects upon his capture by the Spanish;

Ivan the Terrible of Russia, who, upon the suspicious death of this wife, executed bot only those he thought were guilty, but also their families, so that no one would remain alive to pray for their souls;

Mary I, Queen of Scots, who had no luck with men—her closest advisor was dragged from her room and stabbed to death and her husband's house was blown up while he was lying sick in bed;

King Leopold II of Belgium, who's private colony in the Congo caused the death of more than 2 million Africans working for him.

Genres: Nonfiction, History, Biography, Royalty, Collections, Reference, World History

512 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2009

Reviews

[Melisende · Rating 3 out of 5]

Little snippets of the lives of monarchs who reigned from the time of Gilgamesh to our current modern day royals. Each monarch listed (and not all are) has one page dedicated to them and one page dedicted to an image. Entries are, as you might imagine, brief. But all in all a nice easy read.

[Jennifer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good read, had several monarchs I hadn't known about. Only one page given to each one so not much detail, but enough to peak interest.

[Cynthia · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this thoroughly, although as one of the geographically challenged I would have liked little maps on each page, showing the area ruled, and where it would be now. There was room on the page, and it was neatly laid out - text on one side, a picture on the other - a nice little map would have fit right in a corner. The book begins with Gilgamesh, King of Uruk (c.2700 B.C.) and goes through Diana, Princess of Wales. (1961-1997) The things that stood out are the incredible thirst for power some people have, for which they will murder brothers, parents, children, to sit on a throne and wield that power. And in the end what are they? Dead, of course, and facing judgement, and reduced to one page two sides in a discount Barnes & Nobles book being read by me in between work and TV and sleep. It baffled me, especially when their own immediate history would have told them it would be a short bloody ride that had not ended well for anybody else before them. Do they think they will be the exception (and a few are) or is it worth it for them? The other thing that struck me is the incredible arrogance and cruelty of the empires which conquer, colonize, enslave and just flat out take what isn't theirs because they want it. The British, the Spanish, the Americans - we all act like the preschoolers in my classroom. "I want it." 'Why did you take his toy?' I inquire, and 'I wanted it' is the answer. 'Why did you take Africa/India/Australia/this new world just discovered, teeming with peoples and cultures and civilizations of its own?' 'I wanted it.' Truly the human heart is desperately wicked.

[Siggie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love books like this because they give a nice, easy to read synopsis that helps me decide what I want to explore in more detail. This book ranged from Gilgamesh to Princess Diana and included Royals from all nations. I took away a star because of proofreading errors, a pet peeve.

[Valerie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book. It was an easy read because each monarch only got a 1 page summary, so it never got very detailed but just stuck to some of the more interesting details.

[Lillian Slater · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really, really useful and fun. I started this book knowing nothing of royalty and I finished it with a fairly good understanding.... plus..... the chapters are really short and easy to read.....

[Joan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Each Royal has 1 page of text and 1 full-page image. It contains mostly the well-known Royals, but also a few less-known Royals like Gia Long, Emperor of Vietnam (1762-1820) or Nzinga Mbande, Queen of Ndongo and Matamba (c1583-1663). It's a nice coffee table book.
The pages feature - besides well-known royals - a.o.
In ancient times:
Cilgamesh
Sargon the Great
Hammurabi
Muwatallis
Priam
Saul (debatable)
David (debatable)
Solomon (debatable)
Ahab and Jezebel
Ashurbanipal
Croesus
Leonidas
Artemisia I
Hamilcar Barca
Qin Shi Huang
Hannibal
Sophonisba
Wu
Tranes II the Great
Mithridates Vi the Great
Vercingetorix
Thusnelda
Carbimandua
etc. etc.
In medieval times:
Eric Bloodax
Boleslaw I the Brave
Eva MacMurrough
Guy of Lusignan
Francesco Grimaldi
Bayezid I
Jadwiga
Henry the Navigator
Sejong the Great
Hiawatha
Itzcoatl
etc. etc.
In modern times:
Sitting Bull
Wovoka
Haile Selassie I
etc. etc.

[Fredrick Danysh · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book is composed of an extensive collection of brief biographies of roal persons from approximately 2,700 B.C. to the present. It includes illustrations, drawing, or other visual representations for each individual. There is an index but does not include a bibliography of source material so as a historian I must hold the information suspect.

[Sara · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very well done. Some of the rulers could have had more information behind them but I understand about space constraints and a lack of information available. I also managed to find it for under ten bucks so that really improves my outlook on the book.

[Grace Best-Page · Rating 3 out of 5]

While I enjoyed all the information, I wanted a bit more on some of the people, and I thought of one or two that were left out.

[Larry Van Bibber · Rating 4 out of 5]

This serves a very good reference book to research historical leaders.