🧲 Books like this
A Treasury of Royal Scandals: The Shocking True Stories of History's Wickedest, Weirdest, Most Wanton Kings, Queens, Tsars, Popes, and Emperors
Michael Farquhar · back to the book
What’s in it
Tap a tag: ❤ = this matters to me · tap again ✕ = don’t care · again to reset. The list below updates each time.
24 books with the same feel
Include books by the same authorNotorious Royal Marriages: A Juicy Journey Through Nine Centuries of Dynasty, Destiny, and Desire
Leslie Carroll · 507 pages
A funny, raucous, and delightfully dirty 900-year history of the royal marriages of Europe's most famous-and infamous-monarchs. Since time immemorial, royal marriages have had little to do with love- and almost everything to do with diplomacy and dynasty. Clashing personalities have joined in unholy matrimony to form such infamous couples as Russia's Peter II and Catherine the Great, and France's
Sex with Kings: 500 Years of Adultery, Power, Rivalry, and Revenge
Eleanor Herman · 287 pages
Throughout the centuries, royal mistresses have been worshiped, feared, envied, and reviled. They set the fashions, encouraged the arts, and, in some cases, ruled nations. Eleanor Herman's Sex with Kings takes us into the throne rooms and bedrooms of Europe's most powerful monarchs. Alive with flamboyant characters, outrageous humor, and stirring poignancy, this glittering tale of passion and poli
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.
Mad Kings & Queens: History's Most Famous Raving Royals
Alison Rattle, Allison Vale · 160 pages
Danubia: A Personal History of Habsburg Europe
Simon Winder · 551 pages
Nicholas and Alexandra
Robert K. Massie · 613 pages
"A LARGER THAN LIFE DRAMA, SO BIZARRE, SO HEART-RENDING AND, ABOVE ALL, SO APOCALYPTIC, THAT NO NOVELIST WOULD HAVE DARED INVENT IT" —Saturday Review Syndicate The story of the Tsar, his Empress, and the realm they lost. The story of a man, a woman, and the love they shared—and of the obscene monk, Rasputin, who corrupted and destroyed them. "A WONDERFULLY RICH TAPESTRY, the colors fresh and
The Romanov Sisters: The Lost Lives of the Daughters of Nicholas and Alexandra
Helen Rappaport · 518 pages
"They were the Princess Dianas of their day--perhaps the most photographed and talked about young royals of the early twentieth century. The four captivating Russian Grand Duchesses--Olga, Tatiana, Maria and Anastasia Romanov--were much admired for their happy dispositions, their looks, the clothes they wore and their privileged lifestyle. Over the years, the story of the four Romanov sisters and
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
Lady Jane Grey: A Tudor Mystery
Eric Ives · 367 pages
Lady Jane Grey is the queen England rejected and one of the most elusive and tragic characters in English history. Here, Eric Ives, master historian and storyteller presents a compelling new interpretation of Jane and her role in the accession crisis of 1553, with wide-ranging implications for our understanding of the workings of Tudor politics and the exercise of power in early modern England. Pr
Princesses: The Six Daughters of George III
Flora Fraser · 477 pages
The First Elizabeth
Carolly Erickson · 447 pages
In this biography, Carolly Erickson brings Elizabeth I to life and allows us to see her as a living, breathing, elegant, flirtatious, diplomatic, violent, arrogant, and outrageous woman who commands our attention, fascination, and awe. With the special skill for which she is acclaimed, Carolly Erickson electrifies the senses as she evokes with total fidelity the brilliant colors of Elizabethan clo
Alix and Nicky: The Passion of the Last Tsar and Tsarina
Virginia Rounding · 384 pages
A study of the marriage of the last Russian tsar and tsarina offers psychological insights into their relationship and covers the Empress's ill health, their relationship with confidante Ania Vyrubova, and their reliance on the infamous Rasputin.
In Triumph's Wake: Royal Mothers, Tragic Daughters, and the Price They Paid for Glory
Julia P. Gelardi · 404 pages
The Lonely Empress: Elizabeth of Austria
Joan Haslip · 462 pages
She Wolves: the Notorious Queens of England
Elizabeth Norton · 285 pages
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.
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 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
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.
Doomed Queens: Royal Women Who Met Bad Ends, From Cleopatra to Princess Di
Kris Waldherr · 176 pages
Illicit love, madness, betrayal--it isn't always good to be the queenMarie 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 towers and were marched to the scaffold where they surrendered their heads to the executioner. And they a

