Royal Panoply

With her trademark blend of probing scholarship, lively prose and psychological insight, Carolly Erickson focuses on each monarch's entire life - from the puny, socially awkward Charles I, to the choleric, violent William the Conqueror, to the well-meaning, deeply affectionate Queen Anne, who was so heavy she had to be carried to her coronation. "Royal Panoply" recaptures the event-filled, often dangerous, always engaging lives of England's kings and queens, set against the backdrop of a thousand years of Britain's past.