In a sense, the House of Stuart ended three times: with the execution of Charles I in 1649, in 1688 when the Glorious Revolution deposed James II and in 1694 when Queen Mary died childless. From the time that James VI, King of Scotland, came to the throne in 1603 until the death of the last Stuart monarch, Anne, in 1714, a Stuart sat on the throne of England for only 93 of those 111 years, while others ruled England for 18 years during this period. The sickly Stuarts were simply unable to sustain their rule in England and in this work, Frederick Holmes, a distinguished professor of medicine, looks at the medical history of the Stuart dynasty, concluding that the aggregate medical problems and medical misadventures of the Stuarts brought the family down, so that parliament rose to fill the vacuum created. In other words, if it had not been for the physical frailty of James I, James II and Charles I, the course of British history might well have been very different.

About the Author

Frederick Holmes is Edward Hashinger Distinguished Professor of Medicine Emeritus at the University of Kansas Medical Centre and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Medicine.

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2.0 out of 5 stars All over the place, 17 Oct 2004

By	Sue Abbott (Runcorn) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I was very disappointed in this book because of the way it was put together, which was somewhat sloppy. The "thread" kept getting lost and then picked up and the structure was all over the place. Also there were an irritatingly large number of repeated chunks, so for example we kept getting told that Charles II "died prematurely from mercury poisoning". The first time, in the chapter devoted to Charles, it was interesting but the same sentence kept getting slotted. There were constant "potted timelines" inserted into the text too, as though the reader may have forgotten that Anne and Mary were sisters since it was last mentioned.

The medical content was very interesting and well explained, but the historical content was poor and rambling, and too skimpy by half. The doctor should have worked with a good historian and a proper literary Editor.

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