Mad Kings & Queens

by Alison Rattle, Allison Vale

Overview

This frank and fascinating book ransacks the remarkable history of forty of Europe's most dumb, deluded, and downright dangerous monarchs, to reveal a legion of kings and queens who have sat upon the pedestal of power and abused it in spectacular style.

The respectability of the royal position is well and truly tossed aside by the whimsy and the wanton depravity of generations of mad European monarchs, including: The queen who murdered her husband with a red-hot spit. The bloodthirsty monarch who impaled tens of thousands of his subjects. The vampiric ruler who bathed in the blood of young women. The king of excess who beheaded his wives. Mad Kings and Queens is a spectacular celebration of seven hundred years of royal eccentricity, detailing a catalogue of madness and exploring the finer intricacies of royal breeding that lay at its root.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781435140196
Publisher:	Fall River Press
Publication date:	11/15/2011
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	144
File size:	15 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.

Table of Contents

Introduction     6
Isabella "She-Wolf" of France     8
Joan I of Naples     13
Robert III of Scotland     17
Charles VI of France     20
Isabel of Portugal     24
Vlad "The Impaler" of Walachia     28
Juana of Castile     32
Henry VIII of England     36
Ivan "The Terrible" of Russia     41
Erik XIV of Sweden     44
Anna of Saxony     48
Rudolf II of Austria     52
Fyodor I "The Bellringer" of Russia     55
Erzebet Bathory of Hungary     58
Mustafa I of Turkey     62
Maria Eleonore of Brandenburg     65
Murad IV of Turkey     68
Ibrahim I of Turkey     71
Christina of Sweden     74
Louis XIV of France     78
Charles II of Spain     82
Ivan "The Ignorant" of Russia     85
Gian Gastone de' Medici     88
Peter the Great of Russia     92
Philip V of Spain     97
Frederick William I of Prussia     100
Anna I of Russia     103
Barbara of Portugal     106
Ferdinand VI of Spain     109
Catherine the Great of Russia     112
Maria I of Portugal     116
George III of England     118
Ivan (Antonovich) VI of Russia     122
Isabella of Bourbon-Parma     125
Christian VII of Denmark     128
Marie Antoinette of France     133
Caroline of Brunswick     138
Ferdinand I of Austria     142
Charlotte of Belgium     146
Ludwig II "The Swan King" of Bavaria     150
Mad Monarchs by Nationality     153
Royal Lineages     155