Kings, Queens & Tyrants
Pharaohs, emperors and tsars: the rulers whose ambitions, loves and cruelties shaped their nations.
- rulers
- monarchy
- history
Some of the stories included
The Black PrinceThe eldest son of King Edward III, Edward of Woodstock was a famed commander at Crécy and Poitiers who died before he could inherit the throne.
The Reign of Queen VictoriaThe story of Queen Victoria's 63-year reign, which defined an era of empire, industry, and immense social change for Britain.
Julius CaesarThe assassination of Julius Caesar on the Ides of March, 44 BC, and how it led to the end of the Roman Republic he was accused of destroying.
The Hundred Years' WarThe 116-year struggle between England and France, a war of shifting tactics from longbows at Crécy to cannons at Castillon.
The Rise of SaladinHow a Kurdish officer united the Muslim world, retook Jerusalem in 1187, and negotiated a truce with Richard the Lionheart.
Charlemagne, Father of EuropeHow the Frankish king who couldn't write forged an empire, standardized text with lowercase letters, and created a new European identity.
The Building of the Taj MahalGrief drove Emperor Shah Jahan to build the Taj Mahal after his wife's death in 1631; he would die imprisoned with a view of the monument.
Henry VIIIThe reign of Henry VIII, whose search for a male heir led to six marriages, the break with Rome, the dissolution of the monasteries, and a will that set the order of Tudor succession.
Ivan the TerribleThe life of Ivan IV, Russia's first crowned tsar, from his early reforms and the conquest of Kazan to the Oprichnina terror, the sack of Novgorod and the killing of his own heir.
Idi Amin's UgandaThe story of Idi Amin, the dictator who seized power in 1971 and whose brutal rule led to Uganda's economic collapse.
Mansa MusaThe 14th-century ruler of the Mali Empire, Mansa Musa, embarked on a pilgrimage to Mecca that famously crashed Cairo's gold market.
Lady Jane GreyEngland's nine-day queen: the story of a sixteen-year-old scholar made queen in 1553 and executed seven months later.
Tamerlane: The Lame ConquerorTimur, known in Europe as Tamerlane, rose from a minor Central Asian warlord to conquer an empire from Delhi to Anatolia, defeating the Golden Horde and the Ottomans before dying in 1405.
King MidasThe myths of King Midas tell of a golden touch and donkey ears, but historical records reveal a real king who ruled Phrygia in the 8th century BCE.
The Holy Roman EmpireThe story of the thousand-year Holy Roman Empire, from Charlemagne’s coronation in 800 to its dissolution in 1806.
The Discovery of Ur's Death PitWoolley's team found Queen Puabi's tomb in 1927, then a pit of 74 retainers whose deaths were finally reexamined with CT scans in 2007.
The Rise of AugustusHow a sickly teenager outmaneuvered his rivals, ended a century of civil war, and became Rome's first emperor.
The Fall of Marie AntoinetteHow the Queen of France went from a symbol of royal excess to the guillotine.
Napoleon BonaparteFrom Corsican officer to Emperor, Napoleon's rise and fall is a story of ambition, reform, and military genius that ended at Waterloo.
Cardinal RichelieuCardinal Richelieu, chief minister to Louis XIII, used 'Raison d'État' to strengthen France by fighting the Habsburgs and centralizing power.
The Fall of Anne BoleynThe dramatic story of how Queen Anne Boleyn went from the throne to the executioner's block in just four months in 1536.
CleopatraHow Cleopatra, Egypt's last pharaoh, used her wits and alliances to rule, keep her kingdom independent, and challenge the might of Rome.
Boudica, Queen of the IceniBoudica's revolt of AD 60 to 61 burned three Roman towns, and the two Roman writers who tell it disagree on how she died.
The First Emperor of ChinaIn 221 BC, Qin Shi Huang unified China, standardized its writing and currency, and was buried with an army of over 8,000 terracotta soldiers.- Tutankhamun: The Boy KingThe life and death of Tutankhamun, the boy pharaoh who restored Egypt's old gods, and Howard Carter's 1922 discovery of his nearly intact tomb in the Valley of the Kings.
To view the rest of the story pack, download the Chunks Microlearning app and start learning
Or get it straight away:
Download on iOS
Download on Android