From 1600, when Queen Elizabeth granted a charter to the East India Company, the British came as traders, greedy for jewels and spices, apes and ivory; their merchant empire grew ever greater, rivalling even the lavish splendour of the Maharajas and the Mogul emperors. The commercial enterprise soon turned into colonial rule, and India became a part of Great Power politics. ?The Raj? covers all aspects of British command in India, and from all points of view. Letters, diaries and official records all testify to extraordinary Empire lives ? like those of Emily Eden, or Lord Curzon ? which had their share of glamour and comfort (often at the expense of the native population), but which were also dogged by ill-health and interrupted by war, not least the abiding horror of the Indian Mutiny.