This beautiful volume is the most authoritative general history of the Tudors and the Stuarts ever published. Eighteen different experts write chapters on the political, social, religious and cultural history of monarchs striving to control the entire British Isles during religious persecution, the Reformation, Civil War, two revolutions and the Restoration. Two monarchs, two wives of a king, and two archbishops of Canterbury were tried and executed during this turbulent period as Britain was emerging as the most liberal European state at the beginning of its imperial power. Six maps, 280 illustrations (45 in color), a chronology, a glossary, and a family tree of the monarchy flesh out the very readable text.  (GBR89, $49.95)