Notorious Royal Marriages: A Juicy Journey Through Nine Centuries of Dynasty, Destiny, and Desire

by Leslie Carroll

Book Overview

From the author of American Princess: The Love Story of Meghan Markle and Prince Harry comes a funny and delightful history of the royal weddings and marriages of Europe's most famous--and... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0451229010
• ISBN13: 9780451229014
• Release Date: January 2010
• Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
• Length: 528 Pages
• Weight: 0.05 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 5.2" x 8.0"
• Age Range: 18 years and up
• Grade Range: Postsecondary and higher

Customer Reviews

Quite the scandal

Its like an old school soap opera...the kings that cheated and vice versa..the queens that werent really interested in their mates... This stuff we go thru now has been going on for ages and this book is proof... Men back then where filth!.juixy read

Love is in the air... and some affairs too

I cannot stop reading and re-reading this book! Well written, well researched, and one of the greatest books I have read in quite some time. One of my favorite features about this is that although it is organized chronologically, you can still read this book in sections and skip around to your favorite stories. The author presents her opinions in an appropriate manner, which I believe causes the reader to engage further with the text. You will not be able to put this book down. I especially appreciated the juicy bits on Grace Kelly and Wallace Simpson.

Notorious Royal Marriages mixes history, sex, scandal and salacious details of the royal couples who

Leslie Carroll has followed her bestseller "Royal Scandals" with another delightful page turner of the marital joys and sorrows of famous royal couples throughout history. The book takes us on a journey through marital (and sometimes martial!)land from the ninth century to the marriages of Prince Ranier and Grace Kelly and the doomed marriage of Diana and Charles. Carroll earned her authorial spurs writing female fiction and her abilities as a storyteller are superb.. The author has done her homework and produced a readable page turner. The book would have been enriched by adding illustrations and pictures of some of the most prominent couples profiled. It is a hefty tome of 500 pages including many quotations and contemporary assessments by observers on the marriages under review. This is not the history you read it school but the incidents related were important to the marriage partners and their nations. Aong the many royal marriages these couples stood out: Henry VIII and his six wives get the most chapters. Catherine of Aragon from Spain who was abandoned for Anne Boleyn (who Henry beheaded); Jane Seymour who gave the lusty and cruel monarch his only son Edward VI. (she died as a result of childbirth); Anne of Cleves whom Henry cast aside; Katharine Howard executed for adultery and treason and the kind and reformed minded Katherine Parr who nursed Henry in his years of declining health. Tragic stories abound in this book. Nicholas and Alexandra whose love was strong but who were executed by the Communists in 1918 along with their family; Queen Victoria and her beloved Albert who had nine children and remained faithful unto death and Franz Jospeh and Susi his anorexic wife. Mary Queen of Scots died on the block and had three marriages while Catherine the Great had countless lovers and may have poisoned her idiotic tsar husband. Eleanor of Aquitane was imprisoned by her husband Henry II and was a tough medieval cookie who knew the ways of diplomacy, war and the bedchamber. Napoleon was a cad to Josephine who, nevertheless, loved him. Anyone expecting this book to read like a Harlequin Romance is condemned to disappointment. It is a well written history of the marriages that mattered among the elite of various European nations. Carroll has done a good job!

Lizzy "Historically Obsessed"

Leslie Carroll has started with affairs of royal proportion and has now moved to the other side of the fence with "Notorious Royal Marriages". I really loved Royal Affairs and it made it easy to love this one too. The deciding factor for me is that in the past year I have read less than five non-fiction reads in the past year, really this is my 3rd. Pathetic, I know and I am even disgusted with myself about it. My issue is that I need to feel it and breathe what I am reading. That way I am able to absorb more of what I'm reading. Leslie's bite size chunks of the most notorious royal marriages really was able to keep my attention. I found her gift for details impeccable. For instance, in the murder of David Rizzo (Mary Queen of Scots top adviser) Leslie's keen sense of details set the stage like no historical fiction novel I have ever read. "Lady Argyll caught a candle as it was about to fall and snuffed it out, leaving the room illuminated only by the fire in the hearth" In my mind I had for some reason always pictured the murder happening in broad daylight. Knowing that it was dark and creepy while her closest adviser hid in her skirts, with her husband holding her back, David was murdered at her feet. It really put a new perspective on Mary and what life was like for her before her imprisonment in England. Another person I gained a whole new view point on with one quote from Leslie. From her section on Victoria and Albert, Victoria was taking notice of Albert's breeches: "Albert accompanied her to a parade review in Hyde Park, where Victoria may have taken more notice of her betroths physique than the military marches, observing with... "Nothing under them" Catherine the Great was another person that surprised me. I had no idea that she was in possession of such forward thinking. "Supported the radical new vaccination against small pox, founded a medical college, built hospitals, and, entirely from her own purse, funded the creation and maintenance of a foundling home that offered free care to the indigent" Curiously Catherine also created the an early version of the "onesie". Being a mother that puts her high in my ranks. I can not say how many times a onesie came in handy when taking care of babies, a necessity to any mother. 5/5 What makes it a five you ask? As I stated before I NEVER read non fiction, it is not that I do not want to. I just find it can be dry and not to my liking. I usually about half way through get distracted with a fiction read I am craving for. If I can even finish a whole non-fiction then it must be really good. The personal information from the quotes all the way to the clothing worn, Leslie did not leave out any of the juicy details. Leslie has such a witty style that it breathes life into the notorious marriages through out history. As Leslie has stated before "If you think historical fiction is good you can not even imagine what really happened". I have decided that I need to mark for follow up re

the juicy history behind Europe's most infamous Royal couples!

After reading and loving Leslie Carroll's Royal Affairs, I just HAD to get my hands on her follow up non-fiction book, Notorious Royal Marriages: A Juicy Journey Through Nine Centuries of Dynasty, Destiny, and Desire! And, it did not disappoint! You see, Leslie has this great sense of humor that resonates throughout the book, making you laugh out loud and wishing high school history was taught this way! I, for one, would've stayed awake for sure! In Notorious Royal Marriages, Miss Carroll covers infamous Royal couples throughout history; from the tempestuous Henry II and Eleanor of Aquitaine to the 21st century love triangle between Princess Diana, Prince Charles and Camilla Parker-Bowles. What's really great about NRM, is that the chapters are nice and condensed, making it easy to pick up when you've only got a few moments and also, it is easy to jump around to certain chapters depending on what piques your interest. And even though some of the couples are well known, Leslie adds the most interesting tid-bits. For example, Mary Tudor (Henry VIII's youngest sister) had a wardrobe worth $30 million dollars in today's money when she was sent to marry King Louis XII. Yowza!! Can we say DIVA? She puts Paris Hilton to shame! The only thing that I think would bring a lot to the book is pictures. Not only because I am aesthetically stimulated, but also because I think it would be nice to have a visual reference when reading about a particular couple. Yours truly highly recommends Notorious Royal Marriages to all! FTC: my copy of Notorious Royal Marriages was provided by NAL Publishing for review.

Hist-Fic Chick Review

I recently reviewed the first installment in this trilogy of historical nonfiction profiling royal scandals, Royal Affairs: A Lusty Romp through the Extramarital Adventures that Rocked the British Monarchy, and found it absolutely delightfully entertaining. It was so fun to read, all the while being simultaneously informative; you can imagine my excitement when a copy of its sequel, Notorious Royal Marriages: A Juicy Journey through Nine Centuries of Dynasty, Destiny and Desire, arrived for review! As much as I adored Royal Affairs, I actually think Notorious Royal Marriages takes it up another notch! Where Royal Affairs profiled adulterers of the British Monarchy and their willing (or not-so-willing) partners in amour, Notorious Royal Marriages focuses on the nuptial bliss (or blues) of couples throughout history from all over the world. The author has kept the same winning format from Royal Affairs, dividing the chapters chronologically by monarch, and then subdividing by relationship/spouse, which I really enjoy. It allows the reader the opportunity to jump around (I prefer to read straight through, but it's nice to have both options), and it also provides a brief break between stories, in which the author has inserted quotations by and about the monarch or couple in question. I know many people who really enjoy historical fiction but cannot get through a nonfiction biography, yet they want to know the "true story" of a particular historical figure. Anyone who fits this description, Notorious Royal Marriages is definitely for you. Say buh-bye to boring historical nonfiction, because you are in for a completely captivating tale of sassy maidens, saucy monarchs, and the sexy misadventures of the most famous (and infamous) royals throughout history. Followers of this blog may already know that the author Leslie Carroll is a good friend of mine. Something we always end up laughing about whenever we are together is the extent to which we gossip about historical figures such as Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn as if they are our friends and contemporaries. That same tone and feeling of camaraderie with people from the past comes across glowingly in Notorious Royal Marriages. The reader is made to feel as if he or she is sitting down in an 18th century salon, sharing tea and scones with the most well-informed and wittiest of tony society gossips. Where Leslie Carroll is involved, these historical characters may as well be her friends and contemporaries; that is how well this lady knows her stuff! Her visual descriptions of some of the characters profiled within this book are absolutely laugh-out-loud funny. She is definitely the type of writer who says the things most people are thinking in their heads but won't say out loud, and I can't tell you how refreshing it is to read an historical nonfiction volume that is so honest, humorous, and astute in its assessment of human nature throughout history. I thoroughly enjoyed the chapter on Eleanor of Aquitain