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The Ring & The Crown: A History of Royal Weddings 1066-2011 by Alison Weir, Kate Williams, Sarah Gristwood, & Tracy Borman

 

Summary (from the publisher): This book takes an informative and entertaining look at royal weddings through English history.

The excitement surrounding the marriage of Prince William to Kate Middleton has prompted four of Britain's top historical biographers to look closely at Royal Weddings from 1066 to the present day. Professionally, Alison Weir, Kate Williams, Sarah Gristwood and Tracy Borman do events and television together, and are known affectionately, as the 'History Girls'. They bring an elan, and a passion for detail and dramatic narrative to all their subjects.

Each writer focuses on different areas of interest. Alison Weir deals with the medieval, Tudor and Stuart periods. Kate Williams scrutinizes the Georgians and Victorians. Sarah Gristwood takes up the story in 1919, when Princess Patricia of Connaught revived the tradition of royal brides marrying in Westminster Abbey, and goes on to examine the weddings of the Queen Mother (1923), the Queen (1947), and Princess Margaret in 1960. Lastly, Tracy Borman brings the book right up to date, with accounts of the wedding of Prince Charles and Diana Spencer through to the fanfare that will celebrate the nuptials of Kate and William.

Every kind of wedding features -- from those attended by great public celebrations, to the many that took place in private chapels, parish churches and even in secret.

Fascinating anecdotal details are revealed in the course of this most informative and entertaining overview of royal weddings through history, some amusing, some poignant, some bawdy. The Ring and the Crown places the royal wedding of the heir to the throne in historical perspective, and it does so with carefully selected illustrations that help make the authors' insights come even more vividly alive.

Review: In this non-fiction work, four historical biographers join forces to present an overview of royal weddings in England from 1066 through 2011. Each author takes on a different time period: Alison Weir focuses on the earliest history and the medieval, Tudor and Stuart Periods. Kate Williams focuses on the Georgians and Victorians. Sarah Gristwood focuses on royal weddings from 1919 through 1960. And in the final chapter, Tracy Borman covers the most recent weddings from 1960 through the time of the book being written when Kate Middleton and Prince William marry. 

This reminded me of a taking a survey course in college; it moves swiftly through time and gives a tremendous amount of information about a wealth of royals, particularly the early chapter covered by Alison Weir. But it did a good job of providing a sense of the different traditions and practices surrounding royal marries and conveying interesting tidbits from some of the most memorable marriages. The later chapters provided more in depth coverage, but more is known about more recent individuals. 

However, I was less interested in the learning about the marriage of royals in the twentieth century and it did feel as if the bulk of the book was devoted to those figures. For instance, early royals only got a few sentences while Diana earned a signfiicant chunk of the book. I wish Alison Weir's chapter had been given more length and depth, particularly since she covered the greatest span of time. 

Although I have read bits and pieces of much of the knowledge featured in this book, it was an entertaining read. It is a great introductory text for someone wanting to learn a bit more about royals and their marriages and families over the years without needing to read a dozen biographies of different individuals. It was well researched and well presented by its authors. 

Stars: 3

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