Collection
Kings and Queens
Introduction
The lives and reigns of famous monarchs and rulers can often serve as windows into some of history’s most world-shaking events and transformative periods. Many have been colourful, exceptional, diabolical or shockingly incompetent individuals in their own right, and still - regardless of their merits or shortcomings - had the power to reshape the course of events. The fascination with characters such as the devastatingly beautiful Helen Queen of Troy, the legendary King Arthur, Athelstan - the founding-father of England, the erratic Henry VIII and his many wives; his daughter Elizabeth I, who rallied her troops against the Spanish and ruled as a woman in a time of men, the ruthlessly efficient, but sickeningly lovelorn Napoleon Bonaparte, or the flamboyant Marie Antoinette with her ghoulish end, is enduring. But what of the Habsburg Archduke who became the last emperor of Mexico? Or the ambitious Emperor Justinian who temporarily restored the Roman Empire? Or the formidable warrior Queen Nzinga of the Ambundu Kingdoms?
Fortunately, you can plunge headfirst into the lives of all or any of these monarchs right here, with a curated playlist that gathers together all of Tom and Dominic’s episodes on history’s greatest Kings and Queens. From the regnal titans of myth and legend, to the powerbrokers of the past, and the leaders, victims and accomplices of wars, revolutions and personal tragedy.
