Monarchs of Scotland

by Stewart Ross

Book Overview

No Synopsis Available.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0816024790
• ISBN13: 9780816024797
• Release Date: January 1990
• Publisher: Facts on File
• Length: 192 Pages
• Weight: 1.55 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Scottish Royalty for Dummies

Monarchs of Scotland by Stewart Ross is a great starter book and Kings and Queens 101 for lovers of all things Scottish. Mr. Ross lays out an easy to follow and read tale using historical and legend to keep your interest, educate yet not dive too deep into the weeds. Far from a text book this is an excellent and smooth read. Stewart Ross obviously loves his subject and knows it well. He gives us a great foundation with the history of the different tribes that settled present day Scotland and how the Scots became the dominant force and began a royal family with Kenneth MacAlpine whose blood flows down the ages to Queen Elizabeth II today. Monarchs of Scotland gives a brief summary of each of the MacAlpines, the Dunkelds (or Canmores) to the warring Balliols and Bruces and finally to the Stewarts. Obviously more is available to the Stewarts monarchs and there often tragic history and the chapters are bigger but still in an easy and captivating prose that keeps your attention through the union of the crowns and the Jacobites and there failed rebellions against the Hanovarian Dynasty. This book is a must for the library of Scottish History buffs.

A very competent piece of work

This is one of the better all-the-kings-in-one-book efforts. Beginning with the arrival of Celtic invaders from Ireland about 500 AD and the establishment of Dalriada (later "Scotia") in what is now Argyll, the Scots have always been different from the Germanic Anglo-Saxons in some important ways. Subordinate to the numerically superior Picts for the first three centuries, the tribalized Scots finally were united under Kenneth McAlpin about 841, who secured his authority through a combination of charisma, leadership in battle, and political acumen. Very little is actually known of the personal lives of most of the Scots kings until the early 13th century, but thereafter the author summarizes their careers in highly readable semi-academic prose through the House of Stewart, who ruled all of Great Britain, and then follows the Jacobites into exile, ending the story with the debauched alcoholism in his later years of Charles Edward, the Young Pretender, who died in Rome in 1788, and the total lack of interest in Scotland shown by his younger brother, Henry, who concentrated instead on his career as a Catholic cardinal -- until he lost all he possessed to Napoleon and had to be rescued from destitution by the Hanoverian George III. Ross also expertly explains such matters as tanistry, the nomination of a successor from among the king's close male kindred, and carefully distinguishes between provable history and political and dynastic mythology. The numerous portraits and photos include many not often reproduced while a two-page list of "Suggested Further Reading" substitutes for an actual bibliography. A very competent survey.