To be a king and wear a crown is a thing more glorious to them that see it than it is pleasant to them that bear it. - Queen Elizabeth I of England

I shall be an autocrat: that’s my trade. And the good Lord will forgive me: that’s his. - Catherine the Great

To many, Europe has been the pinnacle of world sophistication and culture, yet beneath the power, the glamour and the splendour there has also been scandal, mystery, incest, insanity and skullduggery. Kings and 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 eleventh century up to the present day.
From the Tudors to the Habsburgs to the Windsors, from Vlad the Impaler to Elizabeth Bathory’s torture techniques to Philip IV of France’s persecution of the Knights Templars, from the tragedies of Princess Grace of Monaco and Princess Diana to the corruption charges facing Princess Cristina of Spain today, Kings and Queens of Europe is illustrated throughout with 400 colour and black-and-white photographs, genealogies and artworks, and offers a lively, highly varied portrait of European monarchy.