Unruly: A hilarious (and sometimes confusing) romp through English history

A little bit of background📃

The whole concept of Unruly had me from the get-go. A comedian's take on history? Cool. A journey through the history of England's kings and queens? Also cool. Did the book live up to my expectations? Read on for my thoughts.

Unruly: The ridiculous history of England's kings and queens | Published September 2023 | Read May 2025

The author✏️

David Mitchell (born 1974) is a British comedian, actor and writer. He has numerous comedy television credits to his name, including sitcoms and sketch shows, and he is a frequent guest on British panel shows. He contributes opinion pieces for The Observer and The Guardian. Unruly is Mitchell's first book.

The subject matterℹ️

Mitchell serves up a fresh take on the history of English kings and queens in Unruly. He explores how England's monarchs perpetuated an image of firm and sometimes feared rulers but underneath, they were as messed up as the rest of us and really just a bunch of hapless, lucky fools who ended up in charge. Mitchell tells their stories through a modern lens, shining a light on the rampant narcissism, middle-management insurrection, uncivil wars, and beheadings. The history goes back to King Arthur (spoiler alert: he didn't exist) and takes the reader up to the reign of Elizabeth I, examining how the whole concept of kingship (and sometimes queenship) evolved, from the earliest form of thuggery as a means of exerting power to bowing and paying taxes to a divinely anointed king.

My thoughts on the book💭

I knew who David Mitchell was going into the book but I wondered how he'd pull off a comedic approach to English history. I genuinely found the book funny and LOLed on the regular as I worked my through the 400+ pages. I also admired Mitchell's cleverness and wit as he wrote about history in modern terms, drawing comparisons between the historical and contemporary thoughts and behaviours. I get the British sense of humour, though - and I love it - but if it's not your jam, you may not find the book amusing.

Here's an example of Mitchell's style: They were both twats. They may not have been able to help being twats – the mores and values of their times and of their class may have made them twats. But they were twats and terrible things happened as a result. His views on Englishness: What do we stand for really? Freedom and democracy? Tradition and hierarchy? Bad food and sarcasm? Traffic and disappointment? Ships and factories? Rain and jokes? And his views on the monarchy: Monarchy is what England has instead of a sense of identity. Ha!

Mitchell certainly lifts the veil on the ruling class, showing the kings of history (and a couple of queens) to be a bit dim, inept, horny, glutinous, and power-grabbing fools. They marched through history, beheading or imprisoning anyone who got in their way, often close family members. The whole book is an irreverent dig at the monarchy and the ridiculousness of the kingship deal. To be fair, there is a lot to mock and ridicule!

It should be noted that, while Mitchell is a comedian and actor, he did read History at Cambridge University and he has clearly done his research. I want to assume the historical detail in the book is largely accurate. There's certainly a tonne of information in Unruly, even though it is presented in an engaging way.

The modern lens through which Mitchell views the subject matter makes for a jaunty romp through history, with the benefit of hindsight and modern ideas. Mitchell serves up his judgements with scathing humour and profanities (and a fair bit of juvenile humour) and draws lots of (sometimes long) bows between then and now, making it clear his stance on the monarchy, Brexit and Trumpism. There are lots of amusing sidebars as well, most notably Mitchell's rant about killing off James Bond in the last film.

Even though there are maps and family trees at the start of the book, I did find myself a bit confused by who was who, though. All the Edwards and Henrys and Richards and Johns started to blend together after a while. In addition to that potential for confusion, the ruling families of the period covered by the book were so intermingled that the huge cast of characters left me feeling breathless.

I expected the book to be a bit of a laugh, but I was still looking for some insight. I found the final bookend chapter the most revealing in its analysis. It's a nice summary of all the confusing Henrys and Edwards that had gone before and it's less silly than the main part of the book. Perhaps Mitchell could have shortened the madcap frolic through history of the preceding 350+ pages and fleshed out his analysis. That would have made for a nice balance between the mockery and proper understanding of the history of kingship.

My key learnings🪴

The development of kingship and primogeniture and all the mad and disorganised rules of succession that plagued kingship up until King Henry VIII are fascinating! So many machinations going on that led to the more formal process we know today. Mitchell makes the point that the right to rule that is so deeply ingrained in British society today had to be introduced, that England didn't start off as a kingdom. The notion of royalty and royal blood had to be invented. The ceremonial and religious elements that were added by tribal bullies turning themselves into kings gave kingship an aura of legitimacy and sanctity. There are also a lot of seemingly random things that gave rise to what we know today, such as the concept of parliament, that Mitchell says came about indirectly as a result of King Harold taking an arrow to the eye. Fascinating!

In sum📝

I had a lot of fun reading Unruly and I also gained much insight into Britain's history, not just of the kings and queens. Mitchell has a knack for taking historical detail and making it engaging, particularly since he is not bound by the same expectations and mores as conventional historians in presenting his material. However, the book does get bogged down in the vast historical period that Mitchell covers and I found it hard to keep track of the cast of characters. I wonder if a better approach may have been to take his central thesis and provide some examples from the long line up of kings and queens throughout British history. Still, Unruly was a wild ride and I give him bonus points for the witty captions on all the photos included in the book.

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐