Christopher Hibbert

The name Borgia is synonymous with the corruption, nepotism, and greed that were rife in Renaissance Italy. The powerful, voracious Rodrigo Borgia, better known to history as Pope Alexander VI, was the central figure of the dynasty. Two of his seven papal offspring also rose to power and fame--Lucrezia Borgia, his daughter, whose husband was famously murdered by her brother, and that brother, Cesare, who served as the model for Machiavelli's The Prince....

When Charles Stuart was a young child, it seemed unlikely that he would survive, let alone become ruler of England and Scotland. Once shy and retiring, an awkward stutterer, he grew in stature and confidence under the guidance of the Duke of Buckingham; his marriage to Henrietta of Spain, originally planned to end the conflict between the two nations, became, after rocky beginnings, a true love match. Charles I is best remembered for having started...

In this book, Christopher Hibbert, one of Britain's foremost historians, tells the true story of the Battle of Arnhem which was fought in September 1944 on Dutch soil and made famous in the 1977 film A Bridge Too Far. Nine thousand men of the First British Airborne Division were parachuted into the peaceful countryside that surrounded Arnhem. Their objective was to capture and hold the bridge over the Rhine ahead of the advancing British Second Army....

Works from Les Misirables by Victor Hugo to Citizens by Simon Schama have been inspired by the French Revolution. Now available for the first time in years, The Days of the French Revolution brings to life the events that changed the future of Western civilization. As compelling as any fiction thriller, this real-life drama moves from the storming of the Bastille to the doomed court of Louis XVI, the salon of Madame Roland, and even the boudoir of...

Waterloo was the climax of almost twenty years of war in Europe. It dramatically ended Napoleon's dream of a lasting empire. Through the skillful use of original source material, noted historian Hibbert recreates the events and drama surrounding the famous battle. Hibbert discusses Napoleon and his rise to power, examines Wellington and the allied armies, and gives a step-by-step reconstruction of the battle and its aftermath. Waterloo includes vignettes...

A riveting biography that vividly captures the life and times of the last Victorian king. To his mother, Queen Victoria, he was "poor Bertie," to his wife he was "my dear little man," while the President of France called him "a great English king," and the German Kaiser condemned him as "an old peacock." King Edward VII was all these things and more, as Hibbert reveals in this captivating biography. Shedding new light on the scandals that peppered...

Renowned historian Christopher Hibbert offers an accessible and enlightening portrait of George III, one of England most misunderstood monarchs. George III is most often remembered as the tyrant who taxed American colonists into a revolution. In recent years he has been portrayed in film as a madman clad in a nightshirt running through the halls of his palace. Neither view captures the life of a man who held the throne during a time when the absolute...

It was a dynasty with more wealth, passion, and power than the houses of Windsor, Kennedy, and Rockefeller combined. It shaped all of Europe and controlled politics, scientists, artists, and even popes, for three hundred years. It was the house of Medici, patrons of Botticelli, Michelangelo and Galileo, benefactors who turned Florence into a global power center, and then lost it all. The House of Medici picks up where Barbara Tuchman's Hibbert...