A Royal Passion Katie Whitaker (Weidenfeld and Nicolson, £20) King Charles I, notorious for his execution in 1649, has been the subject of many books. Few, however, have been devoted to the woman who could best appraise his proud and defiant nature. Whitaker makes up for this with a penetrating exploration of his marriage to Henriettta, his bride at 15 and his wife throughout the turbulent years of the Civil War and long before his command of royalist forces. Their marriage was at times "enchanting", at others ferociously bitter Certainly, she was a tower of strength for Charles while he was in prison awaiting his fate on the block. Henrietta was born in France and throughout her life at the side of the king in England was accused of Catholicism, with her many advisers and mentors from that faith. The religious schism was an extremely contentious part of their lives yet they rode through it all as a husband and wife of courage and resolution. Whitaker breaks with tradition to extol the royal passion, a love that was the “admiration of all Europe”, completing a portrait of Charles and Henrietta with an elegance and sensitivity that must make this an award-winning biography.