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Biographies

A–D | E–H | I–Q | R–Z

• King Edgar
  Tenth-century king of the English who had two coronations.
• Edward I
  The 13th-century English king who expelled the Jews, built castles, defeated the Welsh and was beaten by the Scots.
• Edward II
  The disastrous English king who preferred his favourites to his queen and paid the ultimate price.
• Edward VII
  The later career of Victoria's son, including his role in the Entente Cordiale.
• Edward VIII
  The right-wing king who gave up his crown for 'the woman I love'.
• Edward III
  The 14th-century English king whose reign ushered in a golden age of prosperity, domestic calm and military success.
• Edward IV
  Coming to power through the Wars of the Roses, his lifestyle may have led to his early death.
• Edward VI
  Henry VIII’s Protestant heir who died as a teenager.
• Edward VII
  Victoria’s son who was convinced that he was irredeemably frivolous and unworthy to be king.
• Edward the Confessor
  The 11th-century king whose inability to make a clear choice of successor plunged England into war and invasion.
• Albert Einstein
  The man who described the link between energy and matter and totally changed the way we view the universe.
• Dwight D Eisenhower
  The World War II general who, as president, oversaw the post-war development of the US.
• Eleanor of Aquitaine
  The most powerful woman of her generation, married to the king of France, then to the king of England.
• Elizabeth: Apprenticeship
  Extract from Dr David Starkey's biography of the young Elizabeth.
• Elizabeth I
  Survivor of reigns of father, brother and sister who became Britain’s greatest monarch.
• Elizabeth I
  The dilemmas involved in portraying such an extraordinary historical figure.
• Elizabeth II
  The long-reigning monarch who, despite some hiccups, successfully steered the royal family into the 21st century.
• King Ethelbert
  The king of Kent who was the first Anglo-Saxon monarch to be baptised.
• Ethelred II the Unready
  Viking raids and massacres of Danes marked the unsuccessful reign of this ill-starred monarch.
• Erich von Falkenhayn
  German general whose tactics led to a war characterised by stasis and deadlock.
• Ian Fleming
  The creator of the spy James Bond, who was the fulfilment of Fleming's own fantasies.
• Francisco Franco
  Spanish Fascist leader who ruled for 36 years.
• Franz Josef I
  Austro-Hungarian emperor at the outbreak of World War I.
• Sir Martin Frobisher
  Getting into piracy young, Frobisher later unsuccessfully sought the Northwest Passage and distinguished himself during the Armada.
• Galileo Galilei
  The Italian scientist who challenged the Catholic Church and lost.
• Francis Galton
  Founder of eugenics – the science of controlled breeding – which was taken to horrific lengths in the 20th century.
• Mahatma Gandhi
  The Indian national and spiritual leader who preached non-violence but was killed by an assassin’s bullet.
• George III
  'Farmer George', the king remembered more for his 'madness' and for losing North America than for his good administration.
• George, Prince Regent/George IV
  The boy, youth and middle-aged man who wanted to be king but had to wait.
• George V
  The 'Sailor King' who betrayed his Russian cousin.
• George V
  The king that created the template for the 'family monarchy'.
• George VI
  The stammering prince who reluctantly became king.
• Sir Humphrey Gilbert
  Ambitious, educated Gilbert set in motion two of the great quests of the Elizabethan age: the hunt for the Northwest Passage and the attempt to settle America.
• Godwin, earl of Wessex
  The most powerful man in 11th-century England and father of a king.
• Mikhail Gorbachev
  The Soviet leader who was instrumental in the dismantling of the Communist state.
• Sir Richard Grenville
  One of Elizabeth I’s privateers, Grenville was involved in the colonisation of North America and hounded the Spanish treasure fleet, before being immortalised by Tennyson.
• Che Guevara
  Argentinian-born doctor who was a key figure in the Cuban revolution.
• Sir Douglas Haig
  Controversial British general who commanded the British forces during World War I.
• Haile Selassie
  Ethiopia's last emperor and the Rastafarians’ messiah.
• King Harold
  Follow the life of the last Anglo-Saxon king and find out what can still be seen of his world today.
• Harold II Godwinson
  The Anglo-Saxon king whose death at Hastings is depicted on the Bayeux Tapestry.
• Stephen Hawking
  The scientific genius who has fought profound disability.
• Sir John Hawkins
  Hawkins was the prototype Elizabethan pirate, with a merchant's eye for profit and a mariner's love of the sea.
• Sir Richard Hawkins
  Richard Hawkins, son of John Hawkins, continued the family tradition of profiteering at sea.
• Henrietta Maria
  Catholic queen who upset the Puritans but won Charles I's heart.
• Prince Henry
  The heir of James I and VI, whose early death cast a shadow over his brother Charles I.
• Henry I
  The insecure 12th-century king who fathered at least 20 illegitimate children.
• Henry II
  Twelve-century king who battled with his family and his chancellor and meddled with Church affairs.
• Henry III
  A pious peace-lover but ineffectual, autocratic ruler who preferred building to fighting.
• Henry IV
  Nicknamed ‘Bolingbroke’, he took the crown from his cousin Richard II in 1399.
• Henry V
  After defeating the French at Agincourt, he became heir to the French king, only to die too early.
• Henry VI
  Head of the House of Lancaster, he was a frequently incapacitated pawn around whom the Wars of the Roses were waged.
• Henry VII
  Tudor usurper whose reign was undermined by political instability and personal tragedy.
• Henry VIII
  Larger-than-life monarch who dissolved the monasteries and achieved enormous power.
• Henry VIII
  Best known for his six wives, Henry's real achievement was the creation of an England that endured for centuries after his death.
• Keith Moon
  The world's most outrageous rock drummer.
• Bernard Hermann
  Film composer who wrote scores for Orson Welles, Robert Wise and Alfred Hitchcock.
• Paul von Hindenburg
  Germany's leading general in World War I, he later was responsible for Hitler’s rise to chancellor.
• Hirohito
  Japanese emperor whose role in World War II is still debated.
• Adolf Hitler
  The Nazi leader from birth in Austria to suicide in Berlin.
• Adolf Hitler
  A brief biography of the German dictator.
• Ho Chi Minh
  The Vietnamese Communist revolutionary leader whose war against the United States was won six years after his death.
• Herod the Great
  King of the Jews, said to have ordered the ‘slaughter of the innocents’.
• William Hogarth
  The outstanding figure in artistic life in early Georgian England, the first British painter to achieve international fame.
• Robin Hood
  An attempt to discover where the real Robin Hood lived and died.
• Catherine Howard
  Henry VIII's fifth wife, whose adolescent behaviour cost her her head.
• Howard Hughes
  The American billionaire’s triumphs and disasters ad his descent into madness, squalor and death.
• Saddam Hussein
  Iraqi dictator who, defeated by the US and UK, faced charges of crimes against humanity.
• Aldous Huxley
  In Brave New World, he created a society where happiness is controlled by drugs.

A–D | E–H | I–Q | R–Z

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