Inglorious Royal Marriages: A Demi-Millennium of Unholy Mismatrimony

Author: Carroll, Leslie

Brand: NAL

Color: Multicolor

Binding: paperback

Format: Deckle Edge

Number Of Pages: 400

Release Date: 02-09-2014

Details: Product Description


It’s no secret that the marriages of monarchs are often made in hell. Here are some of the most spectacular mismatches in five hundred years of royal history....

In a world where many kings, queens, and princes lacked nothing but true love, marital mismatches could bring out the baddest, boldest behavior in the bluest of bloodlines. Margaret Tudor, her niece Mary I, and Catherine of Braganza were desperately in love with chronically unfaithful husbands, but at least they weren’t murdered by them, as were two of the Medici princesses were. King Charles II’s beautiful, high-spirited sister “Minette” wed Louis XIV’s younger brother, who wore more makeup and perfume than she did. Forced to wed her boring, jug-eared cousin Ferdinand, Marie of Roumania—a granddaughter of Queen Victoria—proved herself one of the heroines of World War I by using her prodigious personal charm to regain massive amounts of land during the peace talks at Versailles.

Brimming with outrageous real-life stories of royal marriages gone wrong, this is an entertaining, unforgettable book of dubious matches doomed from the start.


Review


Praise for Leslie Carroll’s Royal Books

“An irresistible combination of
People magazine and the History Channel.”—
Chicago Tribune (5 Stars)

“Thoroughly enjoyable.”—
Booklist

“For those who tackled Hilary Mantel’s
Wolf Hall, and can’t get enough of the scandal surrounding Henry VIII’s wives, [
Notorious Royal Marriages is] the perfect companion book.”—NewYorker.com


About the Author


Leslie Carroll is the author of several works of historical nonfiction, women’s fiction, and, under the pen names Juliet Grey and Amanda Elyot, a multipublished author of historical fiction. Her nonfiction titles include
Royal Romances,
Royal Pains,
Royal Affairs, 
Notorious Royal Marriages, and
Inglorious Royal Marriages. She is also a classically trained professional actress with numerous portrayals of virgins, vixens, and villainesses to her credit, and is an award-winning audio book narrator.

A frequent commentator on royal romances and relationships, Leslie has been interviewed by numerous publications, including MSNBC.com,
USA Today, the Australian Broadcasting Company, and NPR, and she was a featured royalty historian on CBS nightly news in London during the royal wedding coverage of Prince William and Catherine Middleton. She has also appeared as an expert on the love lives of Queen Victoria, Marie Antoinette, Catherine the Great, and Napoleon on the television series “The Secret Life of...” for Canada’s History Channel. Leslie and her husband, Scott, divide their time between New York City and Denver, Colorado.


Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.



PRAISE FOR LESLIE CARROLL’S NONFICTION


ALSO BY LESLIE CARROLL


 



 


Foreword
“And love is a thing that can never go wrong; / And I am Marie of Roumania,” the American humorist Dorothy Parker satirically quipped in the Roaring Twenties, when the glamorous sovereign, one of Queen Victoria’s multitudinous grandchildren, was the most famous royal on the planet. The instant recognition of Marie’s name, and her reputation as the victim of an unhappy arranged marriage, have become lost to subsequent generations, but her rocky nuptial road mirrors that of countless royal spouses.
Naturally, their ancient and venerated families expected these unions to be glorious—conferring additional distinction or fame upon their respective dynasties—not to mention “glorious” as in “magnificent” and “grand.” But all too often, the opposite occurred, and the royal marriages that began with such high hopes for the couple and the kingdom became inglorious—bringing shame and dishonor to one or both partners. Their marriages, and by extension their families, were instead disgraced by scandal and reduced to ignominy. Some of the unions profiled in this book were viewed at the time as inglorious because traditional gender roles were reversed, with wives assu

EAN: 9780451416766

Package Dimensions: 8.0 x 5.3 x 0.7 inches

Languages: English