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24 books with the same feel
Include books by the same authorCatherine the Great: Portrait of a Woman
Robert K. Massie · 791 pages
The Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Peter the Great, Nicholas and Alexandra, and The Romanovs returns with another masterpiece of narrative biography, the extraordinary story of an obscure young German princess who traveled to Russia at fourteen and rose to become one of the most remarkable, powerful, and captivating women in history. Born into a minor noble family, Catherine transformed herself
We Two: Victoria and Albert: Rulers, Partners, Rivals
Gillian Gill
It was the most influential marriage of the nineteenth century--and one of history's most enduring love stories. Traditional biographies tell us that Queen Victoria inherited the throne as a naive teenager, when the British Empire was at the height of its power, and seemed doomed to find failure as a monarch and misery as a woman until she married her German cousin Albert and accepted him as her l
Catherine de Medici
Leonie Frieda · 464 pages
"Orphaned in infancy, imprisoned in childhood, heiress to an ancient name and vast fortune, Catherine was brought up in the Florentine court and married off, by her uncle the Pope, to Henry, Duke of Orleans, son of King Francis I of France. Aged only fourteen, she suffered cruelly as Henry loved only his beautiful mistress, Diane de Poitiers." "In 1559, when Henry, by then King of France, died hor
Eleanor of Aquitaine: A Life
Alison Weir · 444 pages
A biography of one of the most influential women of the Middle Ages discusses her marriages to Louis VII of France and Henry II of England, and her later efforts to secure the throne of England for her sons.
She-Wolves: The Women Who Ruled England Before Elizabeth
Helen Castor · 477 pages
When Edward VI died in 1553, the extraordinary fact was that there was no one left to claim the title of king of England. For the first time, England would have a reigning queen, but the question was which one: Katherine of Aragon's daughter, Mary; Anne Boleyn's daughter, Elizabeth; or one of their cousins, Lady Jane Grey or Mary, Queen of Scots. But female rule in England also had a past. Four h
Queen of Scots: The True Life of Mary Stuart
John Guy · 581 pages
A new historian of Mary Queen of Scots draws on new sources to shatter various myths surrounding this odd monarch and uncover some of the scandals and political machinations underpinning, and undermining, her throne.
The Sisters Who Would Be Queen
Leanda de Lisle · 386 pages
Anne Boleyn: A New Life of England's Tragic Queen
Joanna Denny · 384 pages
Six Wives: The Queens of Henry VIII
David Starkey · 852 pages
"What makes a man marry six times? Was Henry VIII a voracious philanderer? On the contrary, says David Starkey, the King was seeking happiness - as well as hoping for a son." "The first of his wives was Catherine of Aragon, the pious Spanish Catholic who suffered years of miscarriages and failed to produce a male heir. The only one of his wives to be royal by birth, she was married to him the long
Catherine of Aragon: The Spanish Queen of Henry VIII
Giles Tremlett · 448 pages
Bloody Mary: The Life of Mary Tudor
Carolly Erickson · 533 pages
Mary I was the first queen to rule England (1553-58) in her own right. She was known as Bloody Mary for her persecution of Protestants in a vain attempt to restore Roman Catholicism in England. The daughter of King Henry VIII and the Spanish princess Catherine of Aragon, Mary as a child was a pawn in England's bitter rivalry with more powerful nations, and was later regularly offered for marri
Victoria's Daughters
Jerrold M. Packard · 370 pages
Packard closely examines a generation of royal women who were dominated by their mother, married off more for political advantage than for love, and finally passed over entirely with the accession of their brother to the throne.
The King's Speech: How One Man Saved the British Monarchy
Mark Logue, Peter Conradi · 256 pages
The true story behind the award-winning movie of the same name, The King's Speech is written by London Sunday Times journalist Peter Conradi and Mark Logue -- grandson of Lionel Logue, whose recently discovered diaries and correspondence contain fascinating details about these events. It's the eve of World War II, and King Edward VIII has abdicated the throne of England to marry the woman he loves
Cleopatra: A Life
Stacy Schiff · 441 pages
From back cover: Famous long before she was notorious, Cleopatra has gone down in history for all the wrong reasons; her supple personality and the drama of her circumstances have been lost. In a masterly return to the classical sources, Stacy Schiff boldly separates fact from fiction to rescue the magnetic queen whose death ushered in a new world order.
Athenais: The Life of Louis XIV's Mistress, the Real Queen of France
Lisa Hilton · 353 pages
Athénaïs de Montespan reigned as official mistress to Louis XIV during the most glorious period of "the splendid century." As lovely and charming as she was witty and cunning, Athénaïs quickly rose to far greater prominence than the King's own spouse. It was Madame de Montespan who was known as "the real Queen of France," the symbol of the apotheosis of French culture in the seventeenth century. A
Four Queens: The Provençal Sisters Who Ruled Europe
Nancy Goldstone · 352 pages
Four accomplished sisters who rose from near obscurity to become the most powerful women in EuropeSet against the backdrop of the turbulent thirteenth century, a time of chivalry and crusades, poetry, knights, and monarchs comes the story of the four beautiful daughters of the count of Provence whose brilliant marriages made them the queens of France, England, Germany, and Sicily.From a cultured c
The Romanovs: 1613-1918
Simon Sebag Montefiore · 744 pages
From the Introduction... In some ways, this book is a study of character and the distorting effect of absolute power on personality. It is partly a family story of love, marriage, adultery and children, but it is not like other such stories—royal families are always extraordinary because power both sweetens and contaminates the traditional familial chemistry: the allure and corruption of power
Empress Dowager Cixi: The Concubine Who Launched Modern China
Jung Chang · 464 pages
In 1852, at age sixteen, Cixi was chosen as one of Emperor Xianfeng’s numerous concubines. When he died in 1861, their five-year-old son succeeded to the throne. Cixi at once launched a coup against her son’s regents and placed herself as the true source of power—governing through a silk screen that separated her from her male officials. Drawing on newly available sources, Jung Chang comprehen
Mary Tudor: Princess, Bastard, Queen
Anna Whitelock · 385 pages
Mary Tudor was the first woman to be crowned queen of England. Her accession, in the summer of 1553, took place against the odds and it was, in many ways, emblematic of her life. Anna Whitelock's assured, impassioned and absorbing debut tells the remarkable story of a woman who was a princess one minute, feted by the courts of Europe, and a disinherited bastard the next.
Arbella: England's Lost Queen
Sarah Gristwood · 457 pages
An extraordinary life lost in history: the compelling biography of Arbella Stuart spans both Tudor and Stuart courts and encompasses espionage, a clandestine marriage, imprisonment and eventual death in the Tower of London. Arbella Stuart was the niece of Mary Queen of Scots and first cousin to James VI of Scotland. Acknowledged as her heir by Elizabeth 1, Arbella's right to the English throne wa
Princesses Behaving Badly: Real Stories from History—without the Fairy-Tale Endings
Linda Rodriguez McRobbie · 303 pages
Offers information on historical princesses whose lives were devoid of fairy-tale magic, including the stories of Nazi spy Princess Stephanie von Hohenlohe, mass murderess Princess Olga of Kiev, and warrior mom Princess Rani Lakshmibai.