Kings & Queens: 1,000 Years of British Royal History

Running like a spine through the history of Great Britain is the story of its Royal Family.  War, murder, intrigue, love, loyalty and betrayal feature in this story and shape the country as they do so. This app leads its users through the stories of these kings and queens as the reader looks upon their face staring out from the portraits of the Royal Collection Trust.

 

The portraits are superbly captured for digital viewing and often far superior to the lower resolution ones that you will see on-line. They are particularly vivid on high-resolution displays but also look good on older devices. Some have also been embellished with animations that can make the unwary viewer doubt their eyes when Henry VIII appears to suddenly give them a winning smile.

 

Some app users may have had poor experiences with other history apps that pull in Wikipedia articles for their information. Not so in this app. The narrative of each person described is written especially for this app. They are informative and easy to read. A good balance is struck between conveying the essential information and keeping it accessible to children. Both the deeds and the personality of the ruler are described as part of the story of their reign.

 

Navigation is extremely easy and logical. Progress through the family can be done by going through the portraits in order or by the more complex, but informative, line of succession. Children can read through the entire line of Britain’s royalty or easily jump to the one that they are interested in. Those who know exactly what they are looking for can use a handy keyword search to find it.

 

From within each monarch’s entry, it is easy to access information about other people integral to their story. A short multiple choice quiz can be accessed but at sometimes only two questions, teachers cannot rely on these for fully checking understanding. A worksheet option also exists to pull in a pdf document, which includes the text and pictures for each monarch and their related people as well as the quiz. As this repeats the information in the app, its main purpose would be to print it for classrooms where there is not one device per child.

 

This app is a great reference piece for a child to have at home or for a school library to provide. Teachers wanting to present to the whole class can also make good use of its images and its visual representation of the line of succession. The app’s broad sweep through time will make it ideal for setting the background to any period of British history. 

 

Knowing the motivations of the rulers of the time and something of their personality will help children’s understanding of why and not only how history was made. It may not be an app that covers a single school history topic in detail, but it is one that will be likely to be revisited again and again over multiple history topics.