An interesting perspective, and one that takes a good look at the historical precedents regarding raising Royals - and why their decisions may seem out of touch at times.

I was expecting the book to be entirely be about English royalty, but was pleased to find that it covered enough of Europe to give it some diversity.

Filled with a lot of interesting facts and written in a way that held my attention.

Both well researched and written.

Raising Royalty provides a fact-filled survey of how 20 royal couples -- from Edward the Peaceable and Elfrida of Northhampton in the 10th century to the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge today -- approached child-rearing. Author Carolyn Harris blends history and anecdote to show how culture, tradition, and political expedience drove royal families throughout Europe to view their children as dynastic chess pieces that they moved into the care of noble friends, to abbeys and boarding schools, to other royal courts -- and sometimes even raised themselves -- as convenience and politics required.

Harris also explores the way many royal parents over time have taken an unsentimental view of their children, paying relatively little attention to them. While it is clear that circumstances, such as wars that put parents an ocean away, sometimes intervened, other times kings and queens seem reluctant to engage with the next generation. I would have liked her to explore this topic more, since she demonstrates this tension in almost every family over the past 1,000 years, especially the Hanovers.

With short chapters and lively writing, Raising Royalty is an book that many royal watchers will enjoy. In terms of history, though, it is a fairly superficial survey, that relies on many of the popular royal biographies that have appeared in the past 20 years, rather than original sources or new scholarship. Those who have read many royal biographies will not find anything new in this book, especially in the final chapters about the Queen and Prince Philip, Charles and Diana, and William and Katherine.

Still, Raising Royalty is an interesting and enjoyable read.

I found this to be a highly engaging and interesting inside look at the lives of the royals.

I have long been a student of the British Monarchy and have quite a collection of books on the subject myself. This was very detailed and much history was included. Perfect for any study of royalty.

Really interesting facts not only about parenting, but British royalty in general. Will appeal to many readers.

I was expecting this to either be a "how to" manual or a book exclusively about British Royalty. It was actually a good primer to all of European history where Royal families are involved. It's just 248 pages but packs a lot of history into those few pages.

How to raise kids under the unusual circumstances of being Royal is a subject that never occurred to me, but I turned out to be completely sucked into it. I had passing thoughts through the years about child marriages and how did that exactly work? I mean as a parent (even back in the day) people had to know that teenagers being matched and wedded would be a complicated matter. In some case, children as young as ten were married but then lived apart from their new spouse for as long as it could be arranged.

After being an avid Downton Abbey fan, I also had a lot of unanswered questions about Royal titles. This book explained it all to me. Did you know that Prince Andrew will be the last second son of the sovereign family to have the Title Dule of York? The title will now be passed to his daughter Princess Beatrice and forever stay in her lineage. Even the Royals are changing with modern times. The story of twenty Royal parents going all the way up to present day.

The stories of twenty Royal parents going all the way up to present day are told in this book. If you are a fan of historical fiction this is for you (even though it's nonfiction) it reads like a story and not a textbook.

I read a DRC of this book in exchange for an honest review.