24 JANUARY 1970, page 17

Imperial Sway

RONALD HINGLEY The Rise of the Romanovs Vasili Klyuchev- sky, translated and edited -by Liliana Archi- bald, assisted by Mark Scholl (Macmillan 90s) Romanov Relations: The......

Born Loser

CHARLES STUART The Western Rising Charles Chenevix Trench (Longmans 50s) The career of Charles II's amiable bastard son, Monmouth, was at once purposeless and pathetic. He had......