any recommendations to teach myself the history of the monarchy?

[BooyHoo]

after watching 'elizabeth' and ' the other boleyn girl' i have become very interested in the line of succession and how we got to today with queen elizabeth on the throne. however, i find it hard to get a clear picture in my head of who was related to who and why X took the throne when Y didn't. i would like to be able to draw out a diagram of this, like a family tree, showing all the people involved say from the tudors onwards.

are there any books that would help me understand all of this? i am from northern ireland so my experience of history in school will have been different to what was taught in england, scotland or wales.

I have got 'Kings and Queens' by Richard Cavendish which has a few pages of info on all the kings and queens of England from celtic briton to the present day, each section shows the family tree for that line of the royal family, really helps when i'm trying to understand who is who.

Also if you enjoyed The Other Boleyn girl film i would reccomend reading the book (by Phillipa Gregory) and the rest of her Tudor series.

I really liked Alison Weir's historical books. She's written quite a lot on the Tudor and pre-Tudor bits plus the fun stuff (if your idea of fun is 16 year old girls being beheaded) such as Lady Jane Grey. She has written some fiction too, but it's not as good as the non-fiction and definitely not as good as the Philippa Gregory books. David Starkey's books about Henry VIII and Elizabeth are interesting too, and Antonia Fraser's book on the wives of Henry VIII is great but obviously covers the same stuff as the Alison Weir book on the same topic so Weir is more up-to-date research if you're choosing one.

Antonia Fraser

Also Jean Plaidy covers the same era.

Are you looking for non fiction books? If so David Starkey is pretty readable and has done lots of Tudor books but also general monarchy.