A complete biography of the ancient Macedonian king and one of history's greatest military leaders.Alexander the Great, son of King Philip II of Macedonia, and his fourth wife, Olympias, seemed destined for success. He had Aristotle for a tutor until he was sixteen. He took interest in his father's military efforts abroad, and worried there would be nothing left to conquer when he became king. When ambassadors from Persia arrived in Macedonia, they tried to enterta...

Cleopatra tells the story of the girl queen who inherited the richest empire in the world - one that stretched from the scorching deserts of lower Egypt to the shining Mediterranean metropolis of Alexandria. In his concise biography, historian Jacob Abbott brings to life the intrigue, romance and dramatic action of Cleopatra’s life and times.

Alexander the Great was one of the most successful military commanders in history, and was undefeated in battle. By the time of his death, he had conquered most of the world known to the ancient Greeks.In "Alexander the Great" Abbott recounts how Alexander ascended the Macedonian throne at the age of 20, overthrew his rival claimants, and then began preparations for the expedition against Persia. After defeating Darius, he proceeded to Egypt where he founded Alexandria, then turned ...

King Richard the First, the Crusader, was a boisterous, reckless, and desperate man, and he made a great deal of noise in the world in his day. He began his career very early in life by quarreling with his father. Indeed, his father, his mother, and all his brothers and sisters were engaged, as long as the father lived, in perpetual wars against each other, which were waged with the most desperate fierceness on all sides...

The biography of Alfred the Great, the ninth-century king who fended off the Vikings and converted their leader to Christianity.King of Wessex from 871 to 886 AD, and king of the Anglo-Saxons until 899 AD, the man who would later be known as Alfred the Great saved his realm from the Vikings even as surrounding kingdoms fell to them. He then made the conversion of the Vikings' leader, Guthrum, to Christianity a condition of their peace treaty—and eventually became r...

King Richard the Third, known commonly in history as Richard the Usurper, was perhaps as bad a man as the principle of hereditary sovereignty ever raised to the throne, or perhaps it should rather be said, as the principle of hereditary sovereignty ever made. There is no evidence that his natural disposition was marked with any peculiar depravity. He was made reckless, unscrupulous, and cruel by the influences which surrounded him, and the circumstances in which he lived, and by being habi...

Mary Stuart or Mary I of Scotland, was queen of Scotland from 1542 to 1567 and queen consort of France from 1559 to 1560. Mary, the only surviving legitimate child of King James V of Scotland. In 1567, she was forced to abdicate in favour of James, her one-year-old son. After an unsuccessful attempt to regain the throne, she fled southwards seeking the protection of her first cousin Queen Elizabeth I of England. Mary had previously claimed Elizabeth's throne as her own. Perceiving her as a...

Jacob Abbott was an American writer who wrote juvenile fiction, brief histories, biographies and more. His series of ancient biographies were his best known works, including this one about Alexander the Great, from his Makers of History series. This edition is a brief, illustrated history on the life of Alexander

According to Wikipedia: "William I (circa 1028 9 September 1087), also known as William the Conqueror (Guillaume le Conquérant), was the first Norman King of England from Christmas 1066 until his death. He was also Duke of Normandy from 3 July 1035 until his death, under the name William II. Before his conquest of England, he was known as William the Bastard because of the illegitimacy of his birth. To press his claim to the English crown, William invaded England in 1066, leading an army o...

According to Wikipedia: "Elizabeth I (7 September 1533 24 March 1603) was Queen regnant of England and Queen regnant of Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death. Sometimes called The Virgin Queen, Gloriana, or Good Queen Bess, Elizabeth was the fifth and last monarch of the Tudor dynasty. The daughter of Henry VIII, she was born a princess, but her mother, Anne Boleyn, was executed two and a half years after her birth, and Elizabeth was declared illegitimate. Her brother, Edward VI, b...

According to Wikipedia: "Jacob Abbott (November 14, 1803 October 31, 1879) was an American writer of children's books. Abbott was born at Hallowell, Maine to Jacob and Betsey Abbott. He graduated from Bowdoin College in 1820; studied at Andover Theological Seminary in 1821, 1822, and 1824; was tutor in 1824-1825, and from 1825 to 1829 was professor of mathematics and natural philosophy at Amherst College; was licensed to preach by the Hampshire Association in 1826; founded the Mount Vernon...

Elizabeth I was queen regnant of England and Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death. Sometimes called "The Virgin Queen", "Gloriana" or "Good Queen Bess", Elizabeth was the fifth and last monarch of the Tudor dynasty. In government, Elizabeth was more moderate than her father and half-siblings had been. One of her mottoes was "video et taceo" ("I see, and say nothing"). In religion she was relatively tolerant, avoiding systematic persecution. After 1570, when the pope declared her i...