Elizabeth Bowes Lyon's celebrated life began on August 4th 1900 and has reflected ten dramatic decades of spectacle and change. Royal biographer Robert Lacey traces the Queen Mother's story through the milestones of our time - starting with her carefree childhood and using pictures to match her own history with that of the century. The future Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother became a public figure in 1923 with her engagement and marriage to 'Bertie', the shy and stammering Prince Albert, Duke of York, and it was her triumph to help transform her bashful husband into the brave and inspiring figure of King George VI. Through historic newspaper and magazine front pages (which record and recall the landmarks of our era), the epoch-making events of the century in which The Queen Motherp played a part are chronicled, and her role as mother, grandmother and great-grandmother in a rapidly changing world is also traced. She is a symbol of the best and bravest in Britain's recent past, but she is also a reminder of the enduring values to take in the next millennium - courage, civility, duty and grace.

Queen Elizabeth, The Queen Mother 1900 - 2002 presents the life of a remarkable woman. A Canadian perspective on a sovereign who created and cultivated a special relationship with Canada, it is the portrait of a queen who always evoked passionate reactions. Whether it was the anonymous soldier who vowed "to fight for that little lady," Adolf Hitler who described her as "the most dangerous woman in Europe," or the Canadian journalist who coined the expression "the Queen Mum," the Queen Mother seldom left people unmoved. Opening with the royal tour of 1939, during which Canadians first felt her personal magnetism, Queen Elizabeth, The Queen Mother 1900 - 2002 describes Elizabeth’s background and development, relating how she made a marriage that brought her to the centre stage of public life. It traces her tender support of her shy husband, a reluctant king, shows how she began her Commonwealth role, and recalls her shock at the sudden and unexpected call to wear the Crown. Faced with the never-ending duties of a queen, Elizabeth proved capable of providing inspired leadership for a society faced with the stark prospect of destruction in a war to save the world. On the premature death of her beloved husband she became Queen Elizabeth, The Queen Mother, a role that has shaped nearly half her life, and one in which Canada has always played an important part. The authors analyze Her Majesty’s successes and failures, both public and private, against the background of a century of violent disruption, material achievement, and incredible change.

Elizabeth Angela Marguerite Bowes Lyon, the youngest daughter of the Earl of Strathmore, was born on 4 August, 1900. Few could have imagined the profound effect she would have on Britain and its people. This official biography tells not only her story but, through it, that of the country she loved so devotedly.

When Philip IV of Spain died in 1665, his heir, Carlos II, was three years old. In addition to this looming dynastic crisis, decades of enormous military commitments had left Spain a virtually bankrupt state with vulnerable frontiers and a depleted army. In Silvia Z. Mitchell’s revisionist account, Queen, Mother, and Stateswoman, Queen Regent Mariana of Austria emerges as a towering figure at court and on the international stage, while her key collaborators—the secretaries, ministers, and diplomats who have previously been ignored or undervalued—take their rightful place in history. Mitchell provides a nuanced account of Mariana of Austria’s ten-year regency (1665–75) of the global Spanish Empire and examines her subsequent role as queen mother. Drawing from previously unmined primary sources, including Council of State deliberations, diplomatic correspondence, Mariana’s and Carlos’s letters, royal household papers, manuscripts, and legal documents, Mitchell describes how, over the course of her regency, Mariana led the monarchy out of danger and helped redefine the military and diplomatic blocs of Europe in Spain’s favor. She follows Mariana’s exile from court and recounts how the dowager queen used her extensive connections and diplomatic experience to move the negotiations for her son’s marriage forward, effectively exploiting the process to regain her position. A new narrative of the Spanish Habsburg monarchy in the later seventeenth century, this volume advances our knowledge of women’s legitimate political entitlement in the early modern period. It will be welcomed by scholars and students of queenship, women’s studies, and early modern Spain.

Originally published in 1999, an account of the life of Elizabeth, the Queen Mother, which is linked to the events of the twentieth century. It is illustrated with black and white and colour photographs and written by the author of MY DARLING BUFFY: THE EARLY LIFE OF THE QUEEN MOTHER.

Elizabeth, the Queen Mother is a celebration of the life of the nation''s most treasured Royal, providing a fascinating look at the events of the 20th century, as well as an endearing portrait of the Queen Mother herself.'

From her birth in Scotland at the dawn of the 20th century, through her roles as Queen, mother and finally royal great grand-mother, the Queen Mum has experienced all the dramas both of her own family and of the country at large. This account follows all the key moments of this extraordinary life. She was catapulted from the quiet confines of her domestic circle by her marriage to the Duke of York. Her husband's unexpected elevation to the crown in 1936 following the Abdication Crisis of Edward VIII caused her to become the cornerstone of the monarchy. Cutting a surprisingly modern figure at variance with her later image of genial conservatism, the Queen Mum was almost the Princess Di of her day. A tower of strength for the nation through World War II, she overcame the sorrow of the death of her husband to carve a new role as, simply, the Queen Mum.

"William Tallon was a creature of extremes: though intensely loyal, he was also a dangerous risk-taker; though charming, he could also be vicious; though considerate and amusing, he could be ruthless and predatory. For much of his life he was driven by two demons: a powerful sex drive and an intense, almost pathological love for the Queen Mother..." From humble beginnings as a shopkeeper's son in Coventry to 'Page of the Backstairs' at Clarence House, William Tallon, or 'Backstairs Billy' as he came to be known, entered royal service at the age of fifteen. Over the next fifty years, he became one of the most notorious and flamboyant characters ever to have graced the royal household - the one servant the Queen Mother just could not do without. While others came and went, he remained by her side, becoming one of her most trusted friends and confidants. The fascinating life story of the man who spent more than half a century working for one of the world's most elusive institutions, Backstairs Billy provides a rare glimpse of what the royals really get up to behind closed doors...

Photographs and classic newspaper front pages trace the life of the Queen Mother in context with the great events of the century

"Sarah Gristwood has written a masterpiece that effortlessly and enthrallingly interweaves the amazing stories of women who ruled in Europe during the Renaissance period." -- Alison Weir Sixteenth-century Europe saw an explosion of female rule. From Isabella of Castile, and her granddaughter Mary Tudor, to Catherine de Medici, Anne Boleyn, and Elizabeth Tudor, these women wielded enormous power over their territories, shaping the course of European history for over a century. Across boundaries and generations, these royal women were mothers and daughters, mentors and protées, allies and enemies. For the first time, Europe saw a sisterhood of queens who would not be equaled until modern times. A fascinating group biography and a thrilling political epic, Game of Queens explores the lives of some of the most beloved (and reviled) queens in history.