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5 comments about The Lost King of France: A True Story of Revolution, Revenge, and DNA.

1. I'm a history buff and I love reading about the French Revolution, so this book was a must. Besides, I had already read about the DNA investigation that finally solved the mystery of Louis XVII's fate, but I didn't know the details, or the full story of his captivity after being separated from his family.
   
   The DNA part is very interesting, but what I found really harrowing was the description of the shameful treatment meted out to this little boy whose only fault was to be the son of the despised king and queen (who, by the way, displayed a lot more dignity in their final hours than those who sent them to the scaffold). I agree wholeheartedly with the words of the bishop who, in a small ceremony, blessed the heart on which the DNA tests were conducted. He said that the heart of the small victim was a symbol of all those children who have suffered through the ages - and continue to suffer - because of wars, revolutions, and the cruelty of adults. This kid, seven years old when his father was executed, was locked up in a filthy cell away from his family and friends, regularly abused morally and physically, and referred to in contemporary documents as "the wolf cub" or "the ape's son" (the wolf being Louis XVI and the ape Marie Antoinette, or maybe it was the other way round).
   
   I found myself seriously hating people such as Hebert, the despicable pamphleteer who through his libellous paper contributed enormously to the royal family's unpopularity and the little boy's ordeal, or the shoemaker Simon, who brutalized the helpless child entrusted to his "care".
   
   However great and good the motives and ideals behind the Revolution - which no one intends to deny -, it led to acts of unspeakable brutality against innocent, defenseless people. How fitting that many of those who committed or instigated them ended their days with the same violence they so easily used against others. And how fitting, also, that this little hapless victim of cruelty and hatred should finally have found, in the true telling of his story, the vindication that his senseless suffering deserved.



2. Yet again, huge applause for Deborah Cadbury here, proving her amazing book Terrible Lizard, was not just a fluke. IN this she follows the story of what happened to the boy king Louis XVII of France. A child when his parents Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette went to the guillotine in the French Revolution. The boy king was kept locked up in appalling conditions, solitary confinement with constant maltreatment. By 1795 he was silent, unable to speak, and that same year he died. Therein lies the beginning and end of this book for almost immediately the rumours that the boy who died in that cell was not the King, but an imposter.
   
   Deborah Cadbury, intrigued by this mystery, who died in that cell? and what of all the imposters who harassed the Kings sister until her death, were they really the King returned from exile? Or were they also imposters? This would be a very short book if that was all that Cadbury wrote of. However Cadbury provides us with an excellent background from Marie-Anotnia leaving her Hapsburg home in Austria and arrival in France as Marie-Antoinette, the teenage wife-to-be of the heir to the French throne.
   
   The reasons for the French revolution, the downfall of the house of Bourbon in France, the terrible end of the boy king in his lonely pest-ridden cell and then the rise of the swathe of counterfeit King Louis XVII's and their legal battles over the centuries - indeed right into the 1950's when the last great court battles were fought in France by the main pretenders to the French Throne.
   
   Ironically the last court battle was fought the same year that Crick and Watson discovered the double helix model which is DNA which was finally to prove the veracity of the claim. It has only been in very recent times that DNA science could be used to identify mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) from tiny samples provided. MtDNA, unlike DNA, is passed on almost complete from mother to children, there are on average one variation in 33 generations so it is a very stable way of being able to test family linkages.
   
   Cadbury saves the results of the testing to the very last chapters. The last great search for the body of Louis XVII, the painstaking tracking down of his heart which was taken in the the dissection of the body. The search for sources of DNA sources for Marie-Antoinette and her family - and finally the results.
   
   These may not be conclusive as the results suggest. But Cadbury presents all the evidence and makes conclusions which I found convincing, I won't spoil the answer by revealing it, but it will keep you reading to the last page.
   
   This is a phenomenal book, well researched, written with the easily readable style Cadbury showed in Terrible Lizard, and a compelling page turner.
   
   My highest recommendation.



3. The book "The Lost King of France', is a masterpiece of writing, and the storytelling of history in a readable exciting manner. I could not put it down and read it straight through in about 12 hours.
   The tone of the Author is empathetic and her writing crisp and clear. She captures the excitement, danger, and pathos that tore revolutionary France apart. A Revolution that divided a Nation's national psyche,and in a murderous haze butchered its leading families, and countless ordinary people,in a state sanctioned bloodletting.
   The Declaration of the 'Rights of Man,' was suspended as the Nation divested itself of its counter-revolutionary forces.
   The fate of one small boy caught up in the violence continues to haunt us today; he is a metaphor for the descent into the madness that consumed France.
   The author breaks new ground and with the help of modern science attempts to bring to a conclusion the mystery of the fate of that small boy; the Dauphin, Louis Charles.
   The DNA collection and analysis of the Hapsburgs is explained in a simple manner so that those without a great background in DNA analysis can understand it readily.
   However, in spite of the claims that the identity of the boy who died in the Temple prison and Louis Charles are one and the same, that assertion is not proved definitively by science.
   I would say that the history of the heart and its various journeys is interesting and heart-rending, but all that can be proved by DNA analysis is that the reputed heart of a mystery child is related to the maternal line of the Hapsburgs.
   The Neundorff genetic material has excluded it's connection to Marie Antionette, but the results are not as clean as science would wish.
   The conclusion of Cassiman on the results of the DNA match between Johanna-Gabriela the sister of Marie Antoinette, and the DNA signature of the heart does not really bring to an end the speculation over the fate of the Dauphin. As Cassiman states `the scientific tests only prove the heart in the crypt has to belong to the son of a maternal relative of the Hapsburg family'.
   Philippe Delorme stated that all the hearts of Royals were embalmed, but this is not so. Louis XVth's heart was not embalmed due to the fact he died from Smallpox and it was considered too dangerous.
   I don't think the evidence that Louis Charles died in the Temple is proved beyond a shadow of doubt. The question is still open to history and science.
   Perhaps in the future Deborah Cadbury may have to write another chapter in this story as I do not believe the mystery is quite laid to rest.



4. During the French Revolution Marie Antoinette and Louis XVI both lost their heads for their "crimes" against France. Their two surviving children however were still held captive in the prison that the family had been staying at since they were caught trying to flee to Austria.
   
   Marie Antoinette's daughter Marie Teresa was relatively lucky and managed to make it out of the grasps of the Revolutionaries and ended up getting married. Her younger brother Louis Charles was not so lucky however.
   
   The Revolutionaries treated him like an animal. At first the Revolutionaries used him as a pawn to get evidence so that they could kill his mother (saying that she had molested him) as well as other gruesome things. The Revolutionaries also kept him in deplorable conditions which made him sick and die.
   
   This may have been an ending to the sad tale of Louis XVI and his family except that over the years rumors circulated that somebody had snuck the real Dauphine out of the prison and the boy that died was not Louis XVII. This led to many people all over the world to say that they were Louis XVII, which the book goes into detail of the most interesting.
   
   200 years on people where no closer to figuring out the mystery when they decided to do DNA testing on a heart. When the boy in the prison died somebody cut his heart out to be placed with the rest of the hearts of Kings at St. Denis. DNA researchers then tested this heart with hairs that they had found of Marie Antoinette's sisters. What did the DNA Test reveal? Who was the boy in the prison? Where the pretenders telling the truth? Read The Lost King of France-a very interesting book!



5. Not only is this book compelling, well written and powerful, it's also a real life example of the horrible things humans will do to one another when power, greed and revenge are at play. Cadbury brings it all to life in vivid detail and shows us that this kind of cruelty can happen in any age, to any one. What survives is the human spirit, the people who fought against all odds and against time to save the heart of a small boy and ultimately preserve his story for the world.

2 comments about Encomium Emmae Reginae (Camden Classic Reprints).

1. This is a detailed, fact-filled book on Queen Emma of the 11th century. It is a fascinating portrait of a queen who lived through a lot of tragedies. Not for the light reader, though.



2. If you are interested in the life of Emma of Normandy, wife of King Canute, then this book will captivate you. It is a fascinating, contemporary look at the legendary events of 11th century England.

No comments about The Autobiography and Correspondence of Sir Simonds D'Ewes, Bart., during the Reigns of James I. and Charles I: Volume 2.

No comments about DANCING WITH THE DEVIL..

4 comments about Cnut: King of England 1016-1035.

1. Lawson's coverage of the reign of Cnut and of the Danish conquest of England in the 11th century, is a thorough examination of a subject rarely covered in most histories of the island. About 50 years before the famous Norman Conquest of 1066, the Danish conquest was accomplished on the battle field by Cnut's father Svegn and cemented in Cnut's law codes. The England they conquered was one tired of wars and eager for a chance at peace. Lawson's study examines the ways in which Cnut engineered an aura of legitimacy to his reign, by using personal loyalty, legal codes, close relations with the church and, finally, by marrying the widowed queen of the Anglo-Saxon king, Aethelred the Unready. This is a very carefully researched work, shedding light on a compelling period in English history.

   This book is not for the historically uninitiated or for those who like their history on the light side. However, for those who enjoy an in-depth study of primary sources, this work fills an important gap in scholarship.




2. This book does a really good job of covering King Cnut's reign in detail. I didn't like the way it ended, though. We are told what a skillful king Cnut was, both politically and militarily, and then we are told that he has been all but forgotten. Kind of ruined the mood!



3. This book is good. Unfortunately, it is the exact same book written by M.K. Lawson under a different title. If I had known that, I wouldn't have spent another $20 on a book I already have. M.K. Lawson has the SAME book on Cnut out by two different titles.
   
   Anyway, it is a good, thorough, scholarly work.



4. I found this book frustrating to read since Lawson constantly refers to the source material assuming that every reader is a professional historian. The main things I learned from this book was what we do not know about Cnut and his times. The source material is scanty but overwelming the reader with ambiguities does not help. I was not very familiar with late Anglo-Saxon England but the book should have been more accessable for an important figure in English and Scandinavian history.

5 comments about Lady Jane Grey: Nine Days Queen.

1. A book with Catherine Parr on the cover using a few embellished facts, very little research and fanciful story telling make this a book only for the passive reader.



2. I had eagerly anticipated this book for a long time, but I found it very dissapointing.

   It's more of a quick retelling of the struggle for the throne after Henry VIII's death than a biography of Jane. She's a minor character in her own biography, emerging only for brief, tersely described events.




3. Jane Grey was queen for nine short days, during a period of great turmoil. The documentary evidence from this time is rather spare; even the coins minted during this brief reign are so rare as to be valued collectors' items. Author Alison Plowden uses documentary evidence and secondary sources to reconstruct the world around this brief reign. Indeed, Jane Grey remains a shadowy figure, even with this and other biographies available, given that, as a child, she was not party to much life at court, and did not have ongoing correspondence with many people likely to preserve such writing (only a handful of personal letters remain from her).

   Plowden introduces the world of the Tudors and their friends, hangers-on and rivals from the time of Lancaster/York conflict, and Henry VII, the first Tudor king, forward. This reads like a soap opera, and indeed it was a time of intrigue, deception, jockeying for position and occasional outright evil behaviour. The executioner's task at the Tower was never wanting for more; the Tudors, Seymours, Brandons, Dudleys and other such families were intertwined in the political, religious and dynastic machinations of the time, and sometimes this late medieval machinery caught up the people as it would grind along.

   Lady Jane Grey was not born to be queen. This does not make her unique among monarchs in British history; when the current queen Elizabeth was born, it seemed very remote that she should ever advance to be monarch. Indeed, even the great Henry VIII wasn't the heir apparent when born; his brother Arthur was Prince of Wales -- Henry married his brother's widow Catherine of Aragon, and the successive sequence of wives and offspring commenced from there. Lady Jane Grey was born of none of these wives, nor even from Henry directly, but rather through one of his younger siblings, Mary, one-time queen of France.

   Plowden's tracing of the history is very much personality driven. Events and issues take a secondary role to the history she recounts here -- it is very much the people involved, who are somewhat hard to keep straight at times (when one would acquire a new title, the name changes; since these names often had predecessors also active in royal and governmental affairs, one sometimes needs charts and graphs to keep the players distinct).

   Lady Jane Grey was a mere teenager when she came to power, such as it was. A precocious and intellectual child, she still lacked the political savvy of the Privy Council and other chief executors and leaders from Henry and Edward's reigns; she was the not-always-willing but not-unwilling pawn of her family's ambitions -- at one time thought to be a possible wife for the king Edward, her family jumped at the chance of settling the crown directly on her head, under the ostensible purpose of preserving a Protestant succession.

   Ultimately, the venture was doomed to failure, for as much as the royal and parliamentary authorities like to believe they rule England, ultimately it has been the people en masse, and those whom they do not support do not last long. The common folk, still largely Catholic in leaning, also understood royal succession in simple terms -- Mary Tudor was the next in line for the throne, so they supported her (largely they would support Elizabeth, a moderate Protestant, for the same reason five years later). Lady Jane fell victim again to the problems of politics; Mary Tudor, once queen, was inclined to be lenient until it was felt that Jane's presence continued to be a rallying point for Protestant dissidents.

   Plowden's book is not a simple biography of Jane Grey, but rather a survey of the historical period, from the generation prior to the aftermath. If Jane Grey seems to be a bit lost in the sea of people in this text, that is understandable, for even though she was queen for a short time, it was hardly her own reign or her own doing, and she didn't last long enough for contemporary histories in personal detail to be written (nor was it really in the interests of others to do so during the reign of either Mary or Elizabeth). Taken as a snapshot of a short time in the Tudor dynasty, and a very unique period in British history, this is a good survey.

   This is not an historical romance, nor a narrative history done in novel style. It is a little light on notes, placed at the end rather than as footnotes, for a 'grand' history, but is still built on strong authority. The select bibliography is worthwhile, as is the index. While Plowden's language could take a little polish to good effect, the text remains interesting and factually well-executed, keeping speculation and romantic embellishment to a minimum, and clearly delineating between documentary fact, gossip and hearsay, and later interpretations and reconstructed memories.




4. I was honestly hoping that the issue with the cover portrait would have been resolved with the reprint. There is no new information that I had so hoped for from a writer as well-known as Alison Plowden. I am disappointed and would not recommend that anyone seeking facts about Lady Jane read this book. In an "information age", I had really hoped for facts, the book is so reflective of 1986. There are plenty stories about the Tudor period of our history but little factual compositions.



5. I didn't read much of "Lady Jane Grey: Nine Days Queen", but that's due to the author. However, the book is skimpy and regulated to "this event happened" and "He/she did/said this and that". Alison Plowden is a good and factual writer, but this time she paints by the numbers. Also, in her excellent four-book biography of Elizabeth I, Plowden's attitude resembles Hester W. Chapman's; she tends to get a bit terse and condescending. I guess this is why I didn't finish "Lady Jane Grey: Nine Days Queen". I simply didn't want to encounter Plowden's attitude again while reading about my favorite Tudor princess.

5 comments about Catherine de'Medici (Profiles in Power Series).

1. I agree completely with the previous reviewer from Florida and I, too, would like to know why all of Catherine's children were considered bad. Professor Knecht has done a very admirable job in this well-researched book and it is quite obvious that he knows his subject well. Catherine de'Medici was an interesting woman--a member of the Florentine Medici, but an insignificant one. All that changed when she married the man who was to become Henry II, King of France. Although she may have been a peripheral member of the Italian aristocracy, Catherine was of pre-eminent importance to French history. She was controversial, but, as the previous reviewer states, Professor Knecht was very fair. He explores both Catherine's virtures and faults in a level-headed fashion. This book, however, is far more than a biography of one of France's most controversial and enigmatic figures. It is also a fascinating narrative heavily laced with French history. If you like your biographies a little light, I wouldn't recommend this book. But if you really want to understand this period in French history, and this fascinating woman, I would recommend it highly.



2. I'm surprised that the author completely ignored the economic conditions of France during the reign of Catherine. No mention of the economic force played by the Huguenots. Just names and dates. Author took a three-dimensional figure and reduced her to one-dimension. Just names and dates.



3. Half French, half Italian, this 16th century queen of France was a fascinating figure in many aspects.
   This book focuses on Catherine's struggle to survive and maintain herself as the head of the French Monarchy for almost 30 years. Witchcraft,massacres,poison, but also culture, arts, and architecture characterized the reign of Catherine.This book explores such myths, and places Catherine in the 16th century mentality.
   however, I do not believe a 300 page book is enough to explain the life of such a controversial woman who lived 70 years.
   Also I disagree with Knecht when he says that Catherine was an insignificant member of the Medicis clan. She was in fact the legitimate heiress of the Medicis, the great grand daughter of Lorenzo the Magnificent... how is that insignificant? Also Knecht minimizes Catherine's French roots. Francis the 1st of France surely wanted Italian territories, but he also wanted the rich and wealthy Auvergne region in the center of France. Who was the heiress of that noble and rich French family? Catherine herself, from her mother's side.Catherine was indeed countess of Auvergne, countess of Boulogne, countess of Clermont, and Baroness of de la Tour. In other words, she did have royal blood and she was Diane de Poitiers, Francois of Guise, Mary Stuart and the future Henry IV's relative.
   This is a good book for people who have not read a anything about Catherine: it is brief and quite easy to understand. Hopfully there will be a better edition in the future.



4. I agree with "Names and Dates, Names and Dates." I'd forgotten why I hated history classes so much in middle and high school. Two graduate degrees later, and constant readings in sociology, psychology, and history - especially the Italian Renaissance (in which the Medici's played a very important role) I was painfully reminded by Professor Knecht. He knows his specialty, without a doubt, but either needed a few crash courses in effective sentence and paragraph construction or a better editor. The book is so poorly written, one might logically ask why I continued to plug away at it. A testament to my persistence and ultimately unrealized hope that it would magically transform itself somewhere before the final pages, I'm sure.
   
   I didn't mind so much that it had very little information about Catherine specifically and much more about the religious wars and the stirrings of the Reformation. It certainly supplies numerous names and dates - definitely not a book to start with! Sadly, the man honestly cannot write however skilled and knowledgeable he may be as a university lecturer.



5. Catherine de' Medici is the topic of much controversy and little publication. There are very few biographies of her printed in the English language, so I was very hopeful that R. J. Knecht's would fill in that gap with a scholarly study. However, there is a bit to be desired in this volume. It is more of a survey of Catherine's political career and events in France during her lifetime, than it is a biography. This is not necessarily a fault--however, events are passed over lightly. I was very surprised that some topics were not elaborated upon more, such as Catherine's relations with Mary Queen of Scots. Knecht sometimes does not even explain when a new monarch has come to power in other parts of Europe; for example, Henry VIII of England's death is not noted but in a few lines later, Edward VI is mentioned. And there is not a decent character analysis of Catherine herself.
   
   This book is part of the Profiles in Power collection, so one would assume that it is geared more towards the novice in history, and that would make sense given its brevity, but if one completely new to the era read this book, they may get lost in its sometimes lack of explanation. If one desires a summary of Catherine de' Medici's political tenure in France, this book may fit the bill--but don't have expectations set too high.

5 comments about The Decline and Fall of the House of Windsor.

1. Was the most interesting book I have ever read on Britains royal family. The facts are stated in such a way that the reader is never bored. There is just enough information to really get to know the characters without getting bogged down with too much detail.



2. The reviewer who wrote: "There is just enough information to really get to know the characters without getting bogged down with too much detail" pretty much sums it up. How do you get to know people and still avoid details? Thus the flaw in this type of trash. Save your money. If you want to get to know Queen Mary, read Anne Edward's biography.



3. Donald Spoto is an American. By that I mean that he approaches a subject - royalty - with a skeptical eye, never forgetting that he is a citizen of a country whose entire political system was designed to prevent a monarchy from being established. This attitude stands in refreshing contrast to the bulk of American writing on the Windsors, who seem to stimulate some atavistic longing for royalty on the part of writers who should know better (see the review immediately below for a fairly typical complaint obviously rooted in Windsor-worship). Kitty Kelly's recent THE ROYALS is similar in its irreverence for the superhuman panoply of royalty. Spoto, however, is a far better writer than Kelly. As several other reviewers have commented, Spoto's previous works have been biographies of Hollywood celebrities, and this book extends and refines Spoto's musings on the history and implications of modern society's obsession with media-generated fame. The overarching theme of this book is celebrity as an intrusive phenomenon that is slowly stripping the Windsors of their ancient royal mystique, a glamour which requires distance from the masses to remain viable. Spoto generates a certain amount of sympathy in the reader for the tribulations of what one realizes, after all, are a very ordinary (perhaps even downright mediocre) group of human beings who have done little to merit the attention so relentlessly thrust upon them by the media and their (it must be said) fans and followers. That said, Spoto, with his gift for creating vivid impressions of personalities with a few concise phrases, leaves the reader with a very unpleasant picture of a family gone seriously awry psychologically and dominated by a line of mean, selfish and grasping women who keep their weak male relatives on a very tight leash (all of which may be hallmarks of dynasties in decadence). The most heartbreaking sections of the book deal with the present Queen mother's repulsive treatment of the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, and will certainly make the reader think twice when he or she sees the next photograph of the smiling, befrilled, Dowager Queen Mary, for an iron heart lies behind that mask of "sweet little old lady." Equally affecting is Spoto's history of the "Diana years." He depicts a family ruthlessly using a teenage girl as a brood mare, then becoming vindictive when she refused to do exactly what they told her to do. In fact, the activities of the entire clan in recent years, as reported by Spoto, cast serious doubt on their fitness for the role their birth has expected them to play. I was unable to avoid a certain feeling of contempt for these people and their ridiculous courtiers. Spoto's book enables us to see the Windsors for what they really are - the living exemplars of feudalism, still undead as we enter the 21st century. As such, they are a useless anachronism and deserve to go. Kudos to Spoto for daring to write a sharp, well-documented book that pulls no punches!



4. I have read several House of Windsor histories but few make as much sense of Edward VIII and George VI as this one. I'd recommend this book to others because it is a good explanation why the present royal family is what it is today.



5. Decline and Fall of the House of Windsor could best be summarized as a survey class on the British Monarchy from Queen Victoria to the present. A interesting trashy read indeed, but along the way Spoto recounts stories both well known and relatively unknown, rehabilitating somewhat forgotten figures such as Queen Alexandra and recasting familiar subjects such as Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother and Wallis Simpson in a different light. Spoto is adept at pointing out major breaches of protocol if not outright violations of the British Constitution made by King George VI, the Queen Mother, and Queen Elizabeth II along the way. Spoto is able to explain some of the arcane rituals of the monarchy, peerage, royalty, and nobility in a comprehensible and easy to understand manner. His coverage of the Wallis Simpson affair involving the Prince of Wales (later King Edward VIII) is particularly well told and perhaps the most engaging chapters in the book.
   
   Nowhere near as vindictive or hateful as Kitty Kelly's The Royals (1997) Decline and Fall of the House of Windsor is well researched and well annotated but is a bit out of date. Since its publication Princess Diana, the Queen Mother, and Princess Margaret have all died as have other figures such as Princess Alice. Spoto leaves us with the image of Diana and Prince William and Prince Harry enjoying the Magic Kingdom at Disney World and posits that may be the closest they come to an actual Kingdom, but the events that have transpired since then seem to have changed things. Decline and Fall of the House of Windsor is handy ammunition for Republican sentiments and won't be well received by ardent monarchists, but along the way it renders its subjects more human and less regal. Spoto's fair, frank, and honest assessment of the Windsors, faults and all is certainly one of the better books written on the royals. While his assessment of the future of the monarchy is bleak the events since that time seem to indicate a somewhat happier future. But it is evident that light has indeed been allowed in on the magic and the spell that bound subjects to sovereigns has indeed been broken.