[Illustration: Royal Children of English History] [Illustration: ALFRED THE GREAT LEARNING TO READ.] [Illustration] Royal Children of English History, by E. Nesbit Illustrated by Frances Brundage and M. Bowley. RAPHAEL TUCK & SONS, LTD. London, Paris, New York Publishers to the QUEEN. No. 2091. Black & White Drawings & Letterpress printed in England Contents Page Alfred the Great 5 Prince Arthur 12 Henry the Third 20 The First Prince of Wales 27 Edward the Black Prince 35 Henry the Fifth and the Baby King 42 [Illustration] [Illustration: ROYAL CHILDREN OF ENGLISH HISTORY Alfred the Great.] WHEN I was very, very little, I hated history more than all my other lessons put together, because I had to learn it out of a horrid little book, called somebody's "Outlines of English History"; and it seemed to be all the names of the kings and the dates of battles, and, believing it to be nothing else, I hated it accordingly. I hope you do not think anything so foolish, because, really, history is a story, a story of things that happened to real live people in our England years ago; and the things that are happening here and now, and that are put in the newspapers, will be history for little children one of these days. The people in those old times were the same kind of people who live now. Mothers loved their children then, and fathers worked for them, just as mothers and fathers do now, and children then were good or bad, as the case might be, just as little children are now. And the people you read about in history were real live people, who were good and bad, and glad and sorry, just as people are now-a-days. [Sidenote: A.D. 827.]