- Title: Rebels Pretenders & Impostors
- Author: Clive Cheesman & Jonathan Williams
- Year Published: 2000 (St. Martin’s Press)
- Year Purchased: 2001
- Source: History Book Club
- About: Rebels Pretenders & Impostors covers all manner of aspirants to various thrones and seats of power throughout the centuries. Armed with intrigue, deceit and delusion (and often shored up by a skewed sense of destiny), the majority of these fake kings, faux queens and misguided rebels ended up on the wrong side of history. Built on strong research and excellent writing ,while remaining fast-paced, this short book resides in the middle ground between popular history and academic study. It is fun food for thought.
- Motivation: History, how I love thee! Academic or popular, you are both alright in my book.
- Times Read: 1
- Random Excerpt/Page 137: “Nor are the Stuarts the only British royal dynasty from whom people claim to descend. The end of the house of Tudor did not inspire either constitutional crisis or a romantic sense of loss in the same way as the events of 1688, but the Tudor monarchs are for many heroic figures, larger than life, loved and hated in equal measure, and with plenty of significance for political and national questions that are still debated. It is not surprising therefore that several individuals have presented themselves as their legitimate descendants.”
- Happiness Scale: 9