Error loading page.
Try refreshing the page. If that doesn't work, there may be a network issue, and you can use our self test page to see what's preventing the page from loading.
Learn more about possible network issues or contact support for more help.

A Treasury of Royal Scandals

The Shocking True Stories History's Wickedest Weirdest Most Wanton Kings Queens

Audiobook
1 of 1 copy available
1 of 1 copy available
—The shocking true stories of history's wickedest, weirdest, most wanton kings, queens, tsars, popes and emperors. From the debauchery of Tiberius to the sloth of George IV, Michael Farquhar takes listeners on a roller-coaster journey through the history
  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

  • Formats

  • Languages

  • Reviews

    • AudioFile Magazine
      This volume of tabloid history relates the more notorious sins, crimes, and peccadilloes of various popes and nobles. The language is lively without actually being salacious, meant to amuse rather than incite. The author's liberal quotes from period documents give his page-turner authenticity and personality. Narrator Johnny Heller sounds as if he's doing a voice-over for a reality TV show, tastefully omitting the customary smirk. The sharpness of his high voice is blunted somewhat by his occasional lapses in diction. Y.R. (c) AudioFile 2002, Portland, Maine
    • Publisher's Weekly

      April 30, 2001
      In another royal exposé, Farquhar, a writer at the Washington Post,
      duplicates some of the ground covered in Karl Shaw's Royal Babylon
      (reviewed above), such as Peter the Great's delight in administering torture (he had his son lashed to death) and the way Britain's Queen Mary cajoled her subjects into giving her their household treasures ("I am caressing it with my eyes," she would coyly coo). Written in a provocative tabloid style (with headings like "We Are Not Abused. We Are Abusive," "A Son Should Love His Mother, But..." and "All the Holiness Money Can Buy"), Farquhar publicly washes the dirty laundry of not only European royalty, but also of Roman emperors and popes. Murderers and torturers who slept with their siblings (and other relatives), the emperors of Rome excelled at corruption. The maniacal pedophile Tiberius Caesar (A.D. 14–37) left the corpses of his many victims to rot on the Gemonian Steps, which descended from the Capitol to the Forum, or alternatively enjoyed watching them being thrown from a cliff ("A contingent of soldiers was stationed below to whack them with oars and boat hooks just in case the fall failed to do the trick"). Many popes were no better. Not content with just rooting out Christian heretics by launching a bloody crusade against the Cathars in southern France, Innocent III (1160–1216) declared himself ruler of the world. He sacked Constantinople and massacred every Muslim he could find. Like Royal Babylon, this gossipy string of anecdotes is a popularized rather than an authoritative history and perfect for travel reading.

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

Languages

  • English

Loading