Review of 'Unruly: A History of England's Kings and Queens'
Unruly: A History of England's Kings and Queens by David Mitchell (Comedian)
In “Unruly” comedian David Mitchell takes us through the history of the kings and queens of England starting from the early Anglo-Saxon rulers through the Normans, the Plantagenets, then the roses (Lancaster and York) through to the Tudors up to Elizabeth I, the dawn of the Elizabethan age. He chooses this point to stop talking about kings and queens as it is after this point, he says, that the monarchy lose much of the total power they wielded in earlier centuries. Each chapter features a different monarch throughout the book interspersed with three full-colour image sections. As it is Mitchell expect a lot of dry whit and, dare I say it, humour when talking about the motley lot that make up the book's subject though he is fair to point out the two or three that he feels are not quite so inept. The theory he returns to again and again in the history is that a good ruler has to be violent but not too violent and be logical in the violence he inflicts.
I have to say my knowledge of English history is not great and I did find a lot of the information here quite an education, taking with it the huge grain of salt being Mitchell's ironic spin on the whole thing. But it is this that makes the book much easier to take though by the end I have to admit I was losing track of who was who and what happened when. I did spend a fair amount of time flipping back to the family trees of the various families at the front of the book trying to remember who was related to who. He does try to put things into a certain amount of context, explaining the geo-political situation of the time to help explain things along. It is also good that he makes it clear that the people he is talking about were quite removed from the general populace and that their actions, except when it came to war, generally effected their subjects very little…who was on the throne made little difference.
I found a lot of things interesting here particularly the deep involvement the early kings had with France, many holding properties in both countries and, indeed, ruling in both. It is also amusing to think that English was never really used by the ruling elite until quite late in the game with French the language rigour. I also was interested in the involvement of the Scandinavians in English history, poking and prodding in seek of conquest.
Despite “Unruly” being quite an amusing look at English rulers there is a lot of detail here that can be tricky to keep track of and does, to a certain extent, assume you are generally familiar with their stories which, mostly, I was not. But even without this I did find the book generally entertaining to read though I was happy to reach the end. Mitchell certainly does know his history with his knowledge plain to see - To be able to make fun of the rulers the way he does requires quite a deep understanding of how it all fits together. I simply don't have the memory for it but I admire his.
Rating: “Really good but I have some issues”
Review Date: 2026-03-03
Genre: Non-Fiction
Publisher: Penguin
Publication Date: 2023
ISBN: 9781405953184