5 comments about Royal Russia: The Private Albums Of The Russian Imperial Family.

1. Hmmmm, I was decidedly disappointed in this book. Many of the pictures contained within were very poor quality and there were some blatant mistakes in identification of the family members. A good many of the photographs are not new to the collector of Romanov books. I would not recommend this book if one is expecting to see anything new. I dont think Mr. Blair Lovell would have been pleased!



2. Brief Summary:

   In the year 1881 church bells rung from the towers Alexander II is dead. His eldest son Nicholas was crowned czar of imperial Russia. With his wife Alexandra from England. Granddaughter of Queen Victoria. Their first child was born in 1895.Her name was The Grand Duchess Olga Romanov. She was the czars heir. Then in 1897 their second child was born. Her name was Tatiana Romanov. Then in 1899 Marie was born. Then in1901 Anastasia was born. Followed by their final child the new heir Alexei in 1904. Then problems came to Russia there were riots in Russia. The people started to hate the czar and czarina. People were starving in the streets. And Nicholas didn't know anything about it. Alexei was diagnosed with Hemophilia that meant if he bleeds he could bleed himself to death. The Russian Revolution started and the people hated the czar. They imprisoned him and his family. To a small village in Siberia. Then they transported them to a village near Moscow. Where one morning a soldier came to there room and told them to get dressed and get downstairs. The family was told to wait in the basement. A firing squad opened the door and started to fire on the family. The bullets cut their bodies down. There were screaming and lots of smoke. Not one Romanov lived that morning. They say that Anastasia escaped and lived. But that is another mystery.

   Critical Thinking:

   In the book Royal Russia the Romanov family had many fears. They were imprisoned to Siberia and they went from extremely rich to poor. The girls were the most scared because they did not know what was going on or what was going to happen to them. When they were shot in the basement they probably had a clue what was going on. When they were shot they were terrified on what happened to there family.

   Bottom Line:

   Good book to read and also has some good pictures to look at that best describes the Romanov family as they were not how they were preseved to be.




3. In "Royal Russia", Lovell draws the reader into the amazing world of the last Imperial Family with their wonderful photographs. The photographs are excellent, however there are some misidentifictations of the Grand Duchesses. Nonetheless, the book is great.



4. i love to read anything i can find on the russian royal family,great book.great service,thanks.



5. If a reader of this book is already familiar with the images of the OTMA, and Maria in particular, then the mistaken identifications will not be a problem. There are many photographs that are not in many Romanov photocollections, and the information contained in the text seems spot on. However, I would not recommend this for anyone who does not have a familiarity with the Romanov family already.

1 comments about The Man Who Had Been King: The American Exile of Napoleon's Brother Joseph.

1. This is a first-rate biography that is an excellent follow-on to Stroud's book about Napoleon's nephew, Charles-Lucien Bonaparte (The Emperor of Nature). Stroud has been a biographer of natural historians (another was of Thomas Say, the first American naturalist), but this sojourn into the American exile of Napoleon's older brother Joseph, an aristocrat and former king of Naples and Spain, proves a good fit for her.
   
   One suspects Stroud was drawn to Joseph's story in part because he made his large estate in southern New Jersey into a vast private nature reserve, in which he enriched the natural stock by introducing species from his much-missed Europe, including hares and Osage orange trees. Stroud throws in amusing
   anecdotes about encounters with wildlife: Charles-Lucien, newly arrived from Italy, once gleefully leaps off his horse to grab a beautiful black-and-white creature scurrying along the ground -- only to get sprayed by a skunk.
   
   But Stroud doesn't dwell on the natural history but rather on the rich aristocratic life of Joseph in America, who built one of the country's finest art collections at the time. Stroud makes it clear that the degree to which Joseph influenced the advancement of high European culture in this country, which today reveals itself in great private and public art and library collections, magnificent gardens, and grand estates, was significant. His library, for one, had more volumes than the Library of Congress.
   
   Joseph, a sensitive sophisticate who seems to be the polar opposite of his willful, deeply egotistical younger brother, comes across as a highly likable fellow who is at once an expatriate playboy and a partisan utterly committed to restoring a Bonaparte to the throne of France. His exile in America, which lasts 17 years, makes for a good story, and Stroud tells it with verve, intelligence, and an easygoing yet authoritative style that should appeal to both lay and scholarly readers. I particularly enjoyed her sense of humor: there's one scene of Joseph confronting Napoleon in the bathtub about the Louisiana Purchase that should not be missed.

4 comments about Diana: The Last Days.

1. Those who seek the truth should ignore anything Gregory says about Diana/Dodi. Gregory is associated with Dominic Lawson, editor of the Sunday Telegraph, who has been named in the House of Commons as an agent for British intelligence.



2. As far as Princess Diana books go, this one is as wrongful as you can get ... the reporting is fundamentally flawed. Like the French authorities, Mr Gregory is willing to declare the Earth is flat and more nonsense in the desperate attempt to keep the lid on this cover-up.

   Judging from statements and the relief expressed by some British politicians, the death was needed to save the throne. Diana and Dodi had become a threat to the British establishment. The scenario opening in front of their horrified eyes was of a possible marriage to an Egyptian playboy. It was unthinkable that the heir to the throne and his younger brother should have a Muslim stepfather. It was equally unthinkable that the union might produce an Anglo/Egyptian half-brother for the royal princes.

   British Intelligence, under their rules, was "justified" in wiping these people out for the purposes of the monarchy, protection of the realm, and "national security."




3. I'm really sorry to say this and I hope you don't take offence, but there's only one word in the English language that most precisely describes people like Martyn Gregory: propagandist.



4. This is the book that finally shows the Diana/Dodi murder and conspiracy stories to be what they are - complete figments of the imaginations of Mohamed Fayed and his minions. Mr Gregory had access to Diana's friends and the bodyguards who shared her final vacation with Dodi Fayed, and with their help he sheds the true light on the relationship. Why would anyone want to murder them when the relationship hadn't even lasted for 2 months and gave no indication that it would lead to marriage? And who would choose a car accident to commit murder when it's the most inefficient way of killing, since we have no control over the laws of physics which govern car accidents? I commend the author for having the courage and common sense to write this book, since he, and I, seem to believe that some people would see sinister conspiracy plots in 2 people planning to go grocery shopping together.

5 comments about The Prince: The Secret Story of the World's Most Intriguing Royal, Prince Bandar bin Sultan.

1. I have met Prince Bandar bin Sultan a number of times in the United States in my capacity as a money manager for extremely wealthy international families, and as a financial advisor to governments. I also lean towards political conservatism, although I am deeply disappointed at the extent to which corruption has become common in our government in the last decade or so. It use to under the table, now it's in our face.
   
   William Simpson's book on Prince Bandar is requisite reading if Americans are to begin to understand Saudi Arabia. This is the critical country in the Middle East, and the world's dominant oil producer. Understand that Simpson the author is a personal friend of long-standing with Bandar, having attended together the Royal Air Force College in Cranwell, England many years ago. The Prince has publicly blessed this book. This tells you that this is an authorized biography, which means Bandar has edited every page. He's managing his image, and I must say quite well after reading it.
   
   The problem I have with the book, but it must still be read, is that it is completely self-serving, and the author is in the Prince's pocket. This is not surprising; just about everyone in Washington was in the Prince's pocket. When you have a billion dollar personal fortune at your disposal plus the full financial backing of the world's most liquid country (both oil and greenbacks), who wouldn't want to be Prince Bandar. He's also got political access, and diplomatic immunity to boot.
   
   The real question which is not answered by this book is to what extent did Bandar while the Saudi Arabian Ambassador to the United States from 1983 to 2005, use his money and his power to achieve the goals of his country to the detriment of ours. For the most part Bandar was exempt from the normal laws, and procedures that our own citizens must adhere to.
   
   This man became close personal friends with several Presidents including the current President Bush. You may not remember this, but in the aftermath of the 9/11 tragedy, scores of Osama Bin Laden's relatives were still living in the United States. Many of them were students at different universities. Bandar arranged with President Bush for FBI controlled aircraft to pick up these family members, and whisk them immediately outside the United States to Saudi Arabia where they would be protected from our laws.
   
   How startling is this when you think about it. This was the greatest loss of human life via an attack in our country's history, instigated by one man, Bin Laden, a Saudi by the way. The rest of us were stuck at airports throughout the United States for a week. The only non-military planes allowed to fly throughout the United States were planes being sent to pick up family members of the mass murderer so they could be flown out of the country. This shows you Prince Bandar's power, and he used that power for 22 years as he saw fit, for those he saw fit.
   
   Bandar's money and fingerprints were all over the Iran-Contra scandal that could have conceivably brought down Ronald Reagan's Administration. It certainly tarnished Reagan's government, and ruined the last 2 years of his Presidency. You need to know about these events, and Bandar's connection to them. As citizens of the most important democracy in history, we need to know, and keep an eye on what our government is doing. Our founding fathers did not trust governments. Only an informed citizenry can guard our freedoms.
   
   It has been said that POWER CORRUPTS, AND ABSOLUTE POWER CORRUPTS ABSOLUTEY. I believe this is true, and history demonstrates its veracity. Bandar is a man that has moved in very powerful circles. He was the ultimate power player displaying a persona based on public myth while the whole time operating under different private realities. There were only two people in the world that had power over this man who was the illegitimate son of Prince Sultan and a servant. The book talks about these two men in detail.
   
   Bandar's father was the Saudi Arabian Defense Minister during the early 1960's. It was his grandmother who was the widow of King Abdulaziz that recognized the boy's talent. Bandar had a fabulous personality, truly charismatic. When he is in the room, you know someone special is around. It was this charisma that endeared him to King Fahd who controlled Saudi Arabia with an iron fist for decades.
   
   King Fahd was his mentor, and Bandar wielded enormous influence over the King. After all, it was Bandar that lived overseas all those years doing the King's bidding, and in return influencing what that bidding might be by the advice he rendered to the King. There is no question I am told by people in a position to know that Bandar would use his influence on the King to say that he knew what each of our Presidents would do under certain situations. In return, Bandar would tell the President of our country, several Presidents in fact, that he knew what King Fahd would do. He was the ULTIMATE MIDDLEMAN.
   
   This is why you must read this book. Even though it is self-serving, you can't help but get a feel as to who and what Bandar is. You also get a feel for Saudi Arabia, and the power game they play. Even though the Prince tries to limit the reader as to what he wants you to know about himself, and the game he played, the truth still comes out between the lines. This is why you have to spend the time to understand the Prince, and the culture he comes from. Saudi Arabia is a lifeline for us. Without their oil, the oxygen would be sucked right out of our economy.
   
   You might be wondering how influential Bandar was through the years. Look at it this way. More than a generation ago, when Richard Nixon was trying to cover up the Watergate scandal, his aides told him it would take money. The President asked how much? He was told a million dollars in cash, the equivalent of $20 million today. Nixon replied on the tapes, "I know where I can get it." This was before the Saudi connection that is now firmly entrenched.
   
   There are times when every President needs access to large sums of cash. Sometimes it is to bypass the necessity of reporting to Congress. Other times, it is convenience. Bandar always had that access. We will never know in the darkness of the night to what extent he used that access, and what we had to do in return. You have merely to judge the relationship of the United States to Saudi Arabia to figure it out for yourself.
   
   Let me illustrate. A couple of years ago, I was in South Africa working on a project. I usually stay at a certain hotel, because it is secure. They know me, I am private, and we take care of each other. The entire hotel had been taken over by the Saudi entourage for a diplomatic celebration. I saw dozens of Saudis. Here is what was strange. They were wearing business suits, which as you know usually have an outside pocket on the left side of the jacket where some men would wear a handkerchief. Instead of the handkerchief, each of these dozens of Saudis had plastic envelopes, each one containing $10,000 in hundred dollar bills. Some of these people were walking around with five, six envelopes. Other individuals had suitcases full of plastic envelopes.
   
   My associates at the hotel said they had brought tens of millions of dollars in American cash with them. I don't drink, but I do have meetings in bars, and restaurants. I prefer public locations for security reasons, especially in foreign countries. While in the bar, I ran into a group of 9, 10 Saudis celebrating. They started to take bottles of Cristal Champagne, shake them up and shoot them at one another at $350 per bottle. The bill 2 hours later was $40,000 without the tip. When you have that kind of cash, you can buy influence, and that is our problem in this country. The food in the bar was terrific by the way.
   
   Bandar also wielded tremendous political influence. I was doing a study on North Korea years ago in reference to a geopolitical project I was involved in. President Bush announced the potential drawdown of our troop deployment in South Korea, which is 30,000 plus military personnel. All of our soldiers are within artillery range of North Korean armaments just across the border.
   
   I could not understand how President Bush would have made such an announcement without exacting North Korean concessions in return. It then came to my attention that Bandar had talked Bush into it. How is it that the Saudi Arabian Prince could influence American foreign policy on the Korean Peninsula? It did not make sense, until an associate informed me of Bandar's logic. He told Bush the North Koreans were so unreliable politically that he could envision them launching an artillery attack.
   
   If they did, we would have 15,000 dead Americans in hours. Wouldn't it be better Bandar told the President to reduce the American presence, so that if the North Koreans were foolish, you would have a local, regional conflict on your hands, and not a major war? Bush went for it; Bandar has INFLUENCE.
   
   Read the book. It's a great read about a man of many faces. Word is that Bandar is now out of favor with the Saudi leadership, and that is why he is no longer Ambassador to the United States. The publicly stated reason for the change in ambassadorship was Bandar's health. Sure, do you think the Saudi weather is more conducive to his health than American sunshine? As time goes on, the truth will get out. It is also strange how oil prices have come down strongly off their previous peaks, coincident with a critical Congressional election in November. If I believed in co incidents, we could call this the SAUDI VOTE. The question is does it have Bandar's fingerprints on it?
   
   Richard Stoyeck



2. THE PRINCE: THE SECRET STORY OF THE WORLD'S MOST INTRIGUING ROYAL PRINCE BANDAR BIN SULTAN might at first glance seem to be a special interest title - but it's actually much more. Any reader interested in Middle East issues should read THE PRINCE, as it surveys the life, political rise and richness of the Saudi Arabian prince who today is Ambassador to the U.S. His life reflects social and political changes in the country and his work has led him to play pivotal roles in emerging politics of the entire region, making THE PRINCE a recommended pick for a wide range of collections, from college to general-interest public libraries.
   
   Diane C. Donovan
   California Bookwatch



3. Definitely worth reading, I find it very interesting to read about a Saudi prince. Most people have no idea what a Saudi prince is all about and this is a way to find out.



4. Not that intriguing a character. The author is a very goooooooood friend of the subject and is obviously very bias.



5. Do not waste your money. This is an obvious PR effort and none of the recent news regarding the Prince shows up here - for obvious reasons.

5 comments about Royal Survivor: The Life of Charles II.

1. This book has gotten good reviews in this forum, but I'd like to offer a dissenting viewpoint. This book may have a "lively" style but it is poorly researched. It appears as though the author did no research in archives. The material has all appeared elsewhere. The bulk of the book is based on secondary sources. Fully 85% of the footnotes are from secondary sources. Some quotations are rendered with no footnotes at all. The footnotes aren't even consistent in their form. This a poorly researched & sloppily edited book. There are much better books on Charles that you can get.



2. Stephen Coote's biography of Charles II, _Royal Survivor_, is a superb story in every respect. It suffers a lack of the kings' portraits, but I suspect this is no fault of Mr. Coote who excels beautifully in bringing a wealth of information to his readers. The biographer's evenhanded approach nicely integrates Charles' personal life with late 17th century politics, economics, science, medicine, social studies and religion. Mr. Coote spends a number of pages discussing Catholic-Anglican antagonism, showing again that moderns have gained little insight from our ancestors' mistakes.

   The book has very few weaknesses. A royal genealogy diagram would be helpful, but many are available. A few parallels with modern history are neatly if briefly presented. Little is written about those close to Charles who survived his death in 1685, his queen, mistresses and children. And I was curious if those who helped save Charles' life during his flight in 1651 were suitably rewarded once he became king!

   I very much enjoyed Mr. Coote's style and presentation. He reads well and easily, and I often had trouble setting his book down, wondering what would happen. The author is particularly strong when explaining European politics and religious doctrines, ordinarily dry and difficult topics. His book is highly recommended.




3. Stephen Coote's biography on Charles II is an enjoyable story of a man who the author has titled `Royal Survivor'. This book, which is just under 400 pages (hardback format), takes the reader on a trip with Charles II, through his trials and tribulations, his victories and his defeats. We follow Charles II from boyhood, the death of his father and his attempt to re-claim the throne which met its end at the Battle of Worcester. Then the author takes us along with Charles II as he makes an exciting escape from England back into exile and then his triumphant return to the Throne of England.

   We then settle into an account of Charles II as the King of England, his conflicts with Parliament and the tales of his many mistresses. We follow the story through the period of the Restoration and other great events that occurred during his reign. After finishing this book I really believed that I had gained a better understanding of the subject and the times. In fact I came away from feeling that the King wasn't all that bad and maybe he did try to do his best for England (within a certain framework).

   Not only did the book offer an account of Charles II and his private life but we are also provided with accounts of his struggle with the Dutch provinces, France and its King, along with the plague and the Great Fire of London. I would not consider the book to be an in-depth biography but more of a narrative history offering the reader a general overview of the subject. That said, I still found the story interesting and learnt quite a few things along the way.

   I believe that anyone who enjoys good history without too many dates and names will be quite taken with this account of Charles II. The book provides the reader with a free flowing narrative, holding your interest throughout the whole story. The book is well presented and has a number of black and white photographs of the period. Overall this is an excellent story and well worth the time to read.




4. An amazing story of a prince gone into exile after his father's execution by parliament and his wanderings through Europe. Then his restoration to his father's throne as Charles II. He had an amazing sexual appetite, which led to all the illegitimate children, including the doomed, Duke of Monmouth. Charles II seemed to enjoy life, dodged parliament to the end and ultimately died a Catholic, and paved the way to his son, Monmouth's demise; his brother, James II's abdication; and his nephew, William III of Orange ascension to the throne. Great book. The house of Stuart could never be called boring.



5. I found Stephen Coote's biography on King Charles II to be quite good. The book proves to be well written and well researched. The author managed to bring out the character and personality of this king in his biography that proves to be both informative and entertaining. I believed that the key element of this biography is the high readability of the book to almost anyone interested in the subject matter. Its a book written for the general masses, not for scholars or footnotes fanatics.
   
   If there's a general weakness in the author's approach, it seem like the author appears to excused Charles' many extra-sexual activities. Coote regards Charles' high sexual activities as result of his dire poverty-stricken existence during his long exile. He seem to have more mistresses then most other Kings of England put together. King Charles II that come from this book appears to be a man, highly intelligent, got the "common touch" and acute in politics but he's also lazy, rash and live for the moment type of individual. He have endured what most Kings of England never had to endured and that created some interesting contradictions in his character which the book goes into very nicely.
   
   This biography come highly recommended to anyone interested in this time period.

3 comments about Letters of Henry Viii, 1526--29: Extracts from the Calendar of State Papers of Henry VIII (Uncovered Editions).

1. While I wouldn't recommend this book for the casual reader who wants to know more about King Henry VIII, for scholars, it's wonderful to be able to see the original source documents that are so often briefly quoted in biographies.



2. These are letters from those years when Henry was breaking with the Catholic Church in order to marry Anne Boleyn (and, not incidentally, eliminate its influence on English matters of state). It is part of the Uncovered Editions series, which publishes historic official papers not previously available in popular form.
   
   I'm a great believer in going to original source material, and this book shows that it's well worth the effort.
   
   The machinations and manœuverings are fascinating, as Henry and the Emperor each seeks to engage the Pope in his own interests. When a rumor spreads that the Pope has died, letters are sent calling for threats and bribery to install a Pope favorable to the King's cause. But he's not dead, after all.
   
   The Papacy and the Church are clearly shown as weak and vacillating, ( not to mention corrupt, as the Pope rewards those who contribute to his wars with cardinal's robes). The King doesn't exactly come off well, either, as one has a hard time believing that he really believed the dispensation invalid. His behavior towards Wolsey, whose strenuous efforts in his monarch's behalf were a failure, was, to put it mildly, ungrateful.
   
   Two quibbles (resulting in a "4" rather than a "5"). The title is a tad misleading as it implies that the letters were written by Henry, and although some are, the majority are from other players in the Divorce. Also, the notes could have been more expansive.
   
   Despite that, it's a most interesting collection.



3. If you havent read the actual state papers it may be confusing. Most of them are extracts or abstracts of the original document, so quite a bit is missing as it is. I havent read this book, but my universities library had the whole collect of Calendars of Letters and state papers, Domestic series which has all of the documents from Henry's reign. If you liked that book, you may try and read those, although I am not sure you will be able to buy them, at least a low cost.

No comments about The Diaries of Lady Anne Clifford.

5 comments about Philip V of Spain: The King Who Reigned Twice.

1. Kamen makes a fruitless attempt to "rehabilitate" the first Bourbon king of Spain, known as Philip V.
   No matter how he might try, the author offers very little that could convince a reader that this man contributed anything of value that would obliterate the sorry record of achievements of the very wealthy nation over which he ruled.
   Kamen tries to generate sympathy for this man by appealing to current psychiatric babble -- claiming that he suffered from "bipolar disorder." One might generate sympathy for anyone who developed the disordered psychological system that Philip had developed, if he were to be regarded simply as a human being. How can a modern author ignore the tremendous suffering and disorder that resulted from a society being convinced that such a man should rule over a vast empire? The contents of this book does demonstrate the kind of folly into which masses of people can be led by being induced to uphold the kind of reality that allowed a man like Philip to act as a figurehead for a nation that controlled vast wealth and resources.
   Kamen, however, conveniently gives little attention to the tremendous suffering of the general public which resulted from a system which allowed a man who worked from a most unusual psycholgical system to remain as a figurehead of power for a nation that controlled vast wealth. Instead, he tries to insert -- between the descriptions of Philip's blatantly unsual pychological functioning -- tidbits which are supposed to generate sympathy and to convince the reader that this man actually accomplished useful functions during his long tenure as king of Spain -- 1700-1746.
   This book might have been useful as a clear cut example of how a nation's citizenry can be led to engage in extremely unproductive and, ultimately, dangerous activity if they are first convinced to accept a set of basic constructions -- "the divine right of kings," "the power of the market place," etc. This man served as the figurehead for a power structure that steered Europe -- and The Western Hemisphere -- through vastly significant events. Though a historian can hold to the premise that he/she should not engage in "what if" writing, he/she can -- I would claim -- point out how people of a particular era had been "trapped" in their constructions.



2. As a history of the founding of the Boubon dynasty in Spain, I like this book. It's informative about the blood relationships of contenders for the crowns of Aragon and Castille a little more than a century after the Moors were defeated by Ferdinand and Isabella. The author describes the effect of Phillip's mental illness on political power, on family relationships, and on the formation of a centralized, Spanish administration. This is not a thriller of a book, but it teaches details one never hears about in school, for instance, about the role of marriages on treaties, territorial sovereignty and national identity, or about local versus centralized taxation to support royalty and nobility. It's a good thing that Phillip married strong, politically savvy and devoted women both times.



3. Was the King Crazy?

   Mr. Kamen's book is not really a biography of the Spanish king. Rather, it is a diatribe against other historians who described Philip V as weak, mentally disturbed and a disaster for this country. The author does not see it that way.

   Mr. Kamen explains that Philip suffered from manic depression and bipolar disorder. Could that be another expression for mentally unfit? While the king spent days and weeks in bed, screaming loud and messing up himself and his surroundings, the author claims that he was still of a composed mind and absolutely lucid. Philip's second wife, Elizabeth Farnese, took over the command of the kingdom, saying that she only acted on the instructions of her husband. Do we want to believe her? What we can believe is that, during Philip?s first marriage to Marie Louise of Savoy and even beyond, the affairs of Spain were run by the king's grandfather, King Louis XIV of France. Under Elizabeth Farnese, the French influence lessened and was supplanted by an Italian hegemony.

   Given this very strong foreign influence, and the considerable power still exercised by the Spanish grandees, one could question whether or not it really mattered that much if Philip was always lucid or bipolar. Mr. Kamen may have lost the basis for his argument.




4. Philip V is a king who is more often talked about than subjected to scholarly inquiry. His role in the war of Spanish Succession and his subsequent career on the throne and his second marriage have been the subject of numerous rumors and speculation. Henry Kamen's book rights a great wrong and restores Philip to the modern reader by subjecting his career and mental history to a modern sensibility. Philip's probable bi-polar disorder expalins a great deal about Philip's behavior Kamen's book is not only useful to the reader interested in Spain, but in 17th century European history in general.



5. Kamen's biography of Philip V, which is the first English-language biography on this troubled soul for a long time, is an attempt at rehabilitation. In Philip's case, rehabilitation has its limits - for instance, the fact that he attended FEWER auto-da-fe's than his Hapsburg predecessors is hardly exculpatory. On the other hand, Kamen shows that Philip was a diligent man who, from the moment he arrived from Paris (he was French-born and indeed a grandson of Louis XIV), took his constitutional and religious roles extremely seriously, and withstood armed insurrection by the Hapsburg pretender, Archduke (later Emperor) Charles. Kamen also refutes the standard caricature of Philip as "dominated by women" and "tormented by desire for his wife." (He was uxorious! So what?) As to Philip's supposed "feeble-mindedness" and "madness," Kamen has the benefit of modern psychiatry, and as he explains, Philip's extravagant mood swings and melancholia are classic symptoms of manic depression. Finally, the title: he ruled "twice" not because of his supposed "madness," but because he abdicated in favor of his first-born son Louis, who then died only months later, leaving Philip to re-take the reins of power. A scholarly and impressive study of Spanish court life in the early eighteenth century.

1 comments about Elizabeth: The Scandalous Life of the Duchess of Kingston.

1. I was surprised that the editorial reviews consider this a "fascinating" and "delightful" story. I did not find it so in the least. Basically, young Miss Chudleigh impulsively elopes with Augustus Hervey and soon afterwards they part for good. Many years later she marries the Duke of Kingston without divorcing Hervey basically to avoid the scandal of divorce. The "highlight" of the book is her trial for bigamy, more than 35 years after leaving Hervey and some years after the Duke's death (the charge initiated by the Duke's disinherited nephew). Before and after her conviction, the story concentrates on her legal problems, her travels and her interest in buying up property -- I could barely slog through the second half of the book and admit to skimming some of it.
   
   I am very interested in 18th century English history and have read all the popular history I could find, especially biographies of fashionable ladies like the Duchess of Devonshire, Mrs. Fitzherbert, Mrs. Jordan, Countess of Bessborough, Lady Caroline Lamb, among others. All were fascinating women. Elizabeth, Duchess of Kingston, bigamist or not (really, who cares?), is not nearly in the same league.

No comments about The Reign of Henry VIII: Personalities and Politics.