'Leanda de Lisle has approached one of the great icons of history with understanding and compassion. 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. Here too are the cousins who befriended and betrayed them- his peacocking servant Henry Holland, whose brother engineered the king's fall and the magnetic 'last Boleyn girl', Lucy Carlisle, faithless favourite to Henrietta Maria.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, playing for power at the highest stakes. He is revealed as a complex and fascinating man who pays the price for bringing radical change Henrietta Maria as a warrior queen and political player as extraordinary as any Tudor.

In this vivid new portrait - informed by previously unseen 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. Too often he is recalled as weak and stupid, his wife, Henrietta Maria, as spoilt and silly- the cause of his ruin. His reign is one of the most dramatic in history, yet Charles the man remains elusive. At the head of this disintegrating kingdom was Charles I. The Civil Wars set family against family, friend against friend, and its casualties were immense iiii- a greater proportion of the population than in World War I. Less than forty years after the golden age of Elizabeth I, England was at war with itself. Print White King: Charles I - Traitor, Murderer, Martyr

The White King by Leanda de Lisle