Unruly: A History of England’s Kings and Queens

Taking us right back to King Arthur (spoiler: he didn’t exist), UNRULY tells the founding story of post-Roman England right up to the reign of Elizabeth I (spoiler: she dies) as the monarchy began to lose its power. It’s a tale of narcissists, inadequate self-control, excessive beheadings, middle-management insurrection, uncivil wars, and at least one total Cnut, as the English evolved from having their crops nicked by the thug with the largest armed gang to bowing and paying taxes to a divinely anointed King.

David explores how early England’s monarchs, while acting as feared rulers firmly guiding their subjects’ destinies, were in general as silly and weird in real life as they appear to us today in their portraits. How some people became ‘royal’, who it happened to and why on earth it matters in twenty-first-century Britain are all questions David answers with thoughtfulness and wit.

Watch David the Historian explain it to David the Comedian here.