Robert Lacey is peerless…because he better than anyone sees the modern English monarchy for what it is.

    --Newsweek

 In Monarch, Robert Lacey makes you feel like you're right there-in the palace, in the castle I was absolutely riveted.

    --Dominick Dunne

 A definitive study.

    --Houston Chronicle

 For more than fifty years, Elizabeth Alexandra Mary Windsor-who became Elizabeth II, Queen of England on February 6,1952-has been loved and loathed, revered and feared, applauded and criticized by her people. Still she endures as a captivating figure in the world's most durable symbol of political authority: the British monarchy.

 In Monarch, a meticulously detailed portrait of Elizabeth II as both a human being and an institution, bestselling author Robert Lacey brings the queen to life as never before: as baby "Lillibet" learning to wave to a crowd in the Royal Mews; as a child "ardently praying for a brother" so as to avoid her fate; as a young woman falling in love with and marrying her cousin Philip; and as the mother-in-law of the most complicated royal of all, Princess Diana.

 Updated with new material to reflect the 2002 Golden Jubilee and the passing of the Queen Mum-and featuring dozens of photographs,a family tree of the Hanoverian-Windsor-Mountbatten families, and a map that charts the location of royal castles-Monarch is an engaging,critical, and celebratory account of Elizabeth's half-century reign that no reader of popular history should be without.

Map of Royal Residences

Royal Who's Who

Prologue: "As your Queen, and as a grandmother"

PART 0NE : "To LIVE IN THE HEARTS OF MY PEOPLE"

 1. The First Queen of Hearts

 2. Jubilee

 3. Performing Monarchy

 4. House of Windsor

PART Two : MODEL FAMILY

 5. New Blood

 6. Model Family

 7. Abdication

 8. A "Haze of Wonder"

 9. Apprentice and Master

 10. Mumps and Croquet

 11. Princess in the Tower

 12. "Welfare Monarchy"

 13. "Utterly Oyster"

PART THREE: QUEEN

 14. "A Vast Dumb Tenderness"

 15. "Mindful of the Church's Teaching"

 16. "Ersatz" Religion

 17. New Family

 18. Swinging Sixties

 19. Money Matters

 20. Silver Jubilee

PART FOUR : "QUEEN OF PEOPLE'S HEARTS"

 21. Great White Queen

 22. Wild Oats

 23. "Whatever 'in love' means"

 24. Permission to Kiss

 25. Elizabeth Regina

 26. Royal Knock-Out

 27. "An annus horribilis"

 28. Safety Zone

 29. "Bridge Procedures"

 30. Clapping in the Abbey

 31. "Bagshot for Eddie"

 32. September Again

Postscript: Golden Jubilee

Family Tree

Acknowledgements

Notes

Sources and Select Bibliography

Illustration Credits

Index