From Nero's nagging mother (whom he found especially annoying after taking her as his lover) to Catherine's stable of studs (not of the equine variety), here is a wickedly delightful look at the most scandalous royal doings you never learned about in history class. Gleeful, naughty, sometimes perverted-like so many of the crowned heads themselves-A Treasury of Royal Scandals presents the best (the worst?) of royal misbehavior through the ages. From ancient Rome to Edwardian England, from the lavish rooms of Versailles to the dankest corners of the Bastille, the great royals of Europe have excelled at savage parenting, deadly rivalry, pathological lust, and meeting death with the utmost indignity-or just very bad luck.

Kings & Queens of Europe peels away the glory and the glitz to take a wry look at what has really gone on in the corridors, bedrooms and dungeons of European power from the fourteenth century up to the present day.

During the Renaissance, the monarchy became the dominant ruling power in Europe. It was an era of formidable kings and queens who crushed the feudal rights of their nobles, defended the Catholic Church against the encroachments of Protestantism, fought self-aggrandizing wars and were great patrons of art, architecture, literature and music. This work chronicles the lives and reigns of the 42 monarchs in England, Scotland, France, Spain and the Holy Roman Empire between 1400 and 1600, presenting in the context of their era their personalities, accomplishments and failures.

Recounts the history of present and former ruling families of continental Europe and speculates on the role of monarchy in the future.

This beautifully illustrated and colorful wallchart shows the lineage and coats of arms of the royal houses of Great Britain and Europe from the tenth century to the present, from Aethelred the Unready to Charles and Diana. Featuring 164 heraldic shields, the chart traces all of Europe's royal lines.

In this lively and pathbreaking book, William Monter sketches Europe's increasing acceptance of autonomous female rulers between the late Middle Ages and the French Revolution. Monter surveys the governmental records of Europe's thirty women monarchs—the famous (Mary Stuart, Elizabeth I, Catherine the Great) as well as the obscure (Charlotte of Cyprus, Isabel Clara Eugenia of the Netherlands)—describing how each of them achieved sovereign authority, wielded it, and (more often than men) abandoned it. Monter argues that Europe's female kings, who ruled by divine right, experienced no significant political opposition despite their gender.

Illustrated with 180 photographs, paintings and illustrations, Dark History of the Tudors is a fascinating, accessible account of the murder, adultery and religious turmoil that characterised England’s most infamous royal dynasty.