Royal Affairs: A Lusty Romp Through the Extramarital Adventures That Rocked the British Monarchy
10 best books like Royal Affairs: A Lusty Romp Through the Extramarital Adventures That Rocked the British Monarchy (Leslie Carroll): The Kings' Mistresses: The Liberated Lives of Marie Mancini, Princess Colonna, and Her Sister Hortense, Duchess Mazarin, Behind the Palace Doors: Five Centuries of Sex, Adventure, Vice, Treachery, and Folly from Royal Britain, The Affair of the Poisons: Murder, Infanticide, and Satanism at the Court of Louis XIV, Sex with the Queen: 900 Years of Vile Kings, Virile Lovers, and Passionate Politics, Doomed Queens, Athenais: The Life of Louis XIV's Mistress, the Real Queen of France, Katherine Swynford, In Triumph's Wake: Royal Mothers, Tragic Daughters, and the Price They Paid for Glory, Sex Lives of the Kings & Queens of England: An Irreverent Expose of the Monarchs from Henry VIII to the Present Day, Queens of England
The Kings' Mistresses: The Liberated Lives of Marie Mancini, Princess Colonna, and Her Sister Hortense, Duchess Mazarin
| Author | Elizabeth C. Goldsmith |
| ISBN | 1586488899 |
The Mancini Sisters, Marie and Hortense, were born in Rome, brought to the court of Louis XIV of France, and strategically married off by their uncle, Cardinal Mazarin, to secure his political power base. Such was the life of many young women of the age: they had no independent status under the law and...
Behind the Palace Doors: Five Centuries of Sex, Adventure, Vice, Treachery, and Folly from Royal Britain
| Author | Michael Farquhar |
| ISBN | 0812979044 |
Spanning 500 years of British history, a revealing look at the secret lives of some great (and not-so-great) Britons, courtesy of one of the world's most engaging royal historians
Beleaguered by scandal, betrayed by faithless spouses, bedeviled by ambitious children, the kings and queens...
| Author | Anne Somerset |
| ISBN | 0312330170 |
The Affair of the Poisons, as it became known, was an extraordinary episode that took place in France during the reign of Louis XIV. When poisoning and black magic became widespread, arrests followed. Suspects included those among the highest ranks of society. Many were tortured and numerous executions...
| Author | Eleanor Herman |
| ISBN | 0060846739 |
In royal courts bristling with testosterone—swashbuckling generals, polished courtiers, and virile cardinals—how did repressed regal ladies find happiness?
Anne Boleyn flirted with courtiers; Catherine Howard slept with one. Henry VIII had both of them beheaded.
Catherine...
| Author | Kris Waldherr |
| ISBN | 0767928997 |
Illicit love, madness, betrayal—it isn't always good to be the queen.
Marie Antoinette, Anne Boleyn, and Mary, Queen of Scots. What did they have in common? For a while they were crowned in gold, cosseted in silk, and flattered by courtiers. But in the end, they spent long nights in dark prison...
Athenais: The Life of Louis XIV's Mistress, the Real Queen of France
| Author | Lisa Hilton |
| ISBN | 0316778516 |
I've been watching the BBC show Versailles lately, and it made me want to dive back into some fun, slutty Louis XIV history. Luckily, I picked this book up in a secondhand store years ago, and was apparently just waiting for the right time to read it.
Athenais de Montespan life story follows a pattern...
| Author | Jeannette Lucraft |
| ISBN | 0750932619 |
Wife to the son of a king, mother of numerous important people and the ancestress of many of the royal houses of Europe, Katherine Swynford is someone whose importance to history is not reflected in the documents and written record of the time she lived. No letters written by her survive and not even her...
| Author | Julia P. Gelardi |
| ISBN | 0312371055 |
The powerful and moving story of three royal mothers whose quest for power led to the downfall of their daughters.
Queen Isabella of Castile, Empress Maria Theresa of Austria, and Queen Victoria of England were respected and admired rulers whose legacies continue to be felt today. Their...
| Author | Nigel Cawthorne |
| ISBN | 1853755362 |
Prion’s internationally bestselling Sex Lives series presents lighthearted accounts of the sexual escapades of major figures in history, politics, religion, the arts, and film. Irreverent and gossipy, the books are packed with carnal tidbits and eye-opening revelations. The headlines of...
| Author | Norah Lofts |
| ISBN | 0385127804 |
Norah Lofts' superb new book is an unusual evocation of English history, a chronicle told through the lives of the women who have over the centuries ruled as sovereigns in their own right, or as royal consorts. From Boadicea, who defied the Romans, to Elizabeth II, now celebrating 25 years on the throne,...
| Author | Elizabeth Abbott |
| ISBN | 0002000466 |
She has been known as the "kept woman," the "fancy woman," and the "other woman." The French acknowledge her existence by remarking, "The chains of marriage are so heavy that it often takes three people to carry them." She is Jeanne Antoinette de Pompadour, and Simone de Beauvoir, not to mention Marilyn...
| Author | Princess Michael of Kent |
The royal European courts were unsurpassed for their glamour, wealth, fame, danger, treachery, and politics. The royal mistress was at the center of that world -- admired for her beauty and sensuality; feared for the power she wielded; even vilified, envied, and resented. In times when women had very...
| Author | Alison Rattle |
| ISBN | 0760793115 |
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...
| Author | Carolly Erickson |
| ISBN | 0312316437 |
From medieval conqueror to Renaissance autocrat to Victorian Empress to modern melodrama, Royal Panoply is the story of some of the most fascinating people in world history.
With her trademark blend of probing scholarship, lively prose, and psychological insight, Carolly Erickson...
| Author | Lawrence James |
| ISBN | 0312615450 |
Aristocracy means "rule by the best." For nine hundred years, the British aristocracy considered itself ideally qualified to rule others, make laws, and guide the nation. Its virtues lay in its collective wisdom, its attachment to chivalric codes, and its sense of public duty. It evolved from a medieval...
| Author | Elizabeth Norton |
| ISBN | 1848685823 |
Wife, widow, mother, survivor, the story of the last queen of Henry VIII. The sixth wife of Henry VIII was also the most married queen of England, outliving three husbands before finally marrying for love. Catherine Parr was enjoying her freedom after her first two arranged marriages when she caught...
| Author | Mike Ashley |
| ISBN | 0786711043 |
In one portable volume, A Brief History of British Kings and Queens offers a royal biographical A–Z, its pages lavish in details on all the rulers of the kingdoms within the British Isles, together with their wives or consorts, pretenders, usurpers, and regents, from Queen Boadicea of the early Britons...
Sovereign Ladies: The Six Reigning Queens of England
| Author | Maureen Waller |
| ISBN | 0312338015 |
"In the bestselling tradition of authors Antonia Fraser and David Starkey, Maureen Waller has written a fascinating narrative history---a brilliant combination of drama and biographical insight---of the six women who have ruled England in their own names. "
In the last millennium there...
Royalty's Strangest Characters: Extraordinary But True Tales from 2,000 Years of Mad Monarchs and Raving Rulers (Strangest series)
| Author | Geoff Tibballs |
| ISBN | 1861058276 |
A quick, interesting read.
Not for those interested in truly learning history, as no references are given. This book reads almost like a tabloid newspaper. Interesting and fun, but not reliable in the least.
Also frustrating were some of the unnecessary comments the author added...
Royal Babylon: The Alarming History of European Royalty
| Author | Karl Shaw |
| ISBN | 0767907558 |
An uproarious, eye-opening history of Europe's notorious royal houses that leaves no throne unturned and will make you glad you live in a democracy.
Do you want to know which queen has the unique distinction of being the only known royal kleptomaniac? Or which empress kept her dirty underwear...
Kings and Queens of England
| Author | Antonia Fraser |
| ISBN | 0304357235 |
Amusingly, and hardly surprisingly, this became much more conservative as it got closer to the current day. One author even goes so far as to look back longingly at the golden age of the past when people didn’t get divorced and newspapers didn’t print stories about the love lives of the royals. I guess...
The Life of Mary, Queen of Scots: An Accidental Tragedy
Mary, Queen of Scots lived during one of the most fascinating periods in history. Graham’s epic work paints a unique picture of this controversial woman, showing her to be neither a Catholic martyr nor murdering adulteress but a passive young woman caught up in the ruthless sea of sixteenth-century...
