In 1343 a seventeen-year-old girl named Johanna (1326-1382) ascended the Neapolitan throne, becoming the ruling monarch of one of medieval Europe's most important polities. For nearly forty years, she held her throne and the avid attention of her contemporaries. Their varied responses to her reign created a reputation that made Johanna the most notorious woman in Europe during her lifetime. In From She-Wolf to Martyr, Elizabeth Casteen examines Johanna's evolving, problematic reputation and uses it as a lens through which to analyze often-contradictory late-medieval conceptions of rulership, authority, and femininity.When Johanna inherited the Neapolitan throne from her grandfather, many questioned both her right to and her suitability for her throne. After the murder of her first husband, Johanna quickly became infamous as a she-wolf-a violent, predatory, sexually licentious woman. Yet, she also eventually gained fame as a wise, pious, and able queen. Contemporaries-including Francesco Petrarch, Giovanni Boccaccio, Birgitta of Sweden, and Catherine of Siena-were fascinated by Johanna. Drawing on a wide range of textual and visual sources, Casteen reconstructs the fourteenth-century conversation about Johanna and tracks the role she played in her time's cultural imaginary. She argues that despite Johanna's modern reputation for indolence and incompetence, she crafted a new model of female sovereignty that many of her contemporaries accepted and even lauded.

This accessible, immensely readable biography of Xerxes by Jacob Abbott is part of the 'Makers of History' series, and is the best single-volume introduction to the life and times of the Persian king of kings.

This Is A New Release Of The Original 1873 Edition.

This Is A New Release Of The Original 1921 Edition.

Books by this author include the Nobel Prize nominated "Death of Democracy: The Erosion of Freedom Doctrine of the Second American Revolution" and "The True King of England Lives in America"

ANDREW ROSE'S "THE WOMAN BEFORE WALLIS" RECOUNTS THE UNTOLD STORY OF PASSION, SCANDAL, AND DECADENCE BETWEEN A COURTESAN AND A BRITISH PRINCE
Prince Edward was the King of England when he famously abdicated his crown over his love for the American divorcee Wallis Simpson. But two decades earlier, he was an awkward and inexperienced young man, socializing with Europe's elite while stationed behind the lines during World War I. It was there he met the alluring Marguerite Alibert, the queen of the Paris demimonde.
Marguerite had fought her way up from street gamine to a woman "haut de gamme" to become one of the highest-ranking courtesans in Paris. Prince Edward was instantly smitten, but their affair eventually turned sour. Edward thought he was free of Marguerite--until she murdered her husband, a wealthy Egyptian playboy, by shooting him three times in the back at the Savoy Hotel in London. With Marguerite on trial for murder, Edward was at risk of having their affair exposed. What happened next was buried for decades, uncovered now thanks to exceptional access to documents held in the Royal Archives and private collections.

The Last Ruling Romanovs.... Much has been written about the life of the last Imperial family of Russia: Tsar Nicholas II, his wife Tsarina Alexandra, and their five children - Olga, Tatiana, Maria, Anastasia and Aleksei. The entire family, including their personal physician, retainers, and even their pets, became tragic victims of the Bolshevik revolution. They were arrested, exiled, and ultimately secretly murdered in a small cellar of a house in the Urals, in the summer of 1918. In this book, you will follow the events which led up to their eventual tragic fate through personal words of each family member, as well as their close friends and associates. Their letters, diaries, and postcards - many of which have been translated into English here for the first time - tell a unique story, and have yet a lot to reveal. Translated from Russian by Helen Azar, along with Eva and Dan McDonald, who translated most of the 1918 letters from French, this book offers an extraordinary glimpse into the very private world, and the final years, of the last Russian imperial family - which they chronicle in their own words. This book is a great companion to the "The Diary of Olga Romanov: Royal Witness to the Russian Revolution," also by Helen Azar.

Known to be proud, regal and beautiful, Cecily Neville was born in the year of the great English victory at Agincourt and survived long enough to witness the arrival of the future Henry VIII, her great-grandson. Her life spanned most of the fifteenth century. Cecily's marriage to Richard, Duke of York, was successful, even happy, and she travelled with him wherever his career dictated, bearing his children in England, Ireland and France, including the future Edward IV and Richard III. What was the substance behind her claim to be 'queen by right'? Would she indeed have made a good queen during these turbulent times? One of a huge family herself, Cecily would see two of her sons become kings of England, but the struggles that tore apart the Houses of Lancaster and York also turned brother against brother. Cecily's life cannot have been easy. Images of her dripping in jewels and holding her own alternative 'court' might belie the terrible heartache of seeing her descendants destroy each other. In attempting to be the family peacemaker, she frequently had to make heart-wrenching choices, yet these did not destroy her. She battled on, outliving her husband, friends, rivals and most of her children, to become one of the era's great survivors.

*Includes famous art depicting Louis XVI, Marie Antoinette, and important people, places, and events in their lives.
*Includes a discussion of their roles in the American and French Revolutions.
*Includes a comprehensive discussion of their trials and executions.
"I die perfectly innocent of the so-called crimes of which I am accused. I pardon those who are the cause of my misfortunes." - Louis XVI
"I was a queen, and you took away my crown; a wife, and you killed my husband; a mother, and you deprived me of my children. My blood alone remains: take it, but do not make me suffer long." - Marie Antoinette
Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette are among France's most famous royalty, but for reasons they would have much rather avoided. Coming of age in the wake of the reign of the Sun King, Louis XIV, and his father, Louis XV, Louis XVI initially intended to be one of France's most enlightened Kings. Instead, he was destined to be the only French King ever executed. Indeed, it is his death and his role in fomenting the French Revolution (along with his infamous Queen, Marie Antoinette) that continue to play the central role in Louis XVI's legacy.
Throughout history, a countless number of historical figures have had their lives overshadowed by the myths and legends that surround them to the extent that their legacy comes to define them. In French history, this is truer of Marie Antoinette than just about everyone else. Nearly 220 years after she was put to the guillotine, Marie Antoinette is more famous than ever, fairly or unfairly coming to epitomize royalty and everything that was wrong with it. Since her death, Marie Antoinette has been the subject of sharp historical debate over whether she was actually a catalyst in the French Revolution or simply an insignificant scapegoat who was unfairly made a target. At the same time, the one thing everybody associates with Antoinette is the phrase "Let them eat cake," a spoiled and ignorant comment supposedly made in response to being informed that the peasants had no bread. While that phrase has been used far and wide to depict someone as being out of touch, there's no indication Antoinette ever said anything like it. Nevertheless, she remains a pop culture fixture across the West, perceived just as negatively in death as she was in life.
The Death of Royalty explains the couple's role in two of history's most famous revolutions, looks at the life of the famous, ill-fated Royal Family, attempts to separate fact from fiction and analyzes their legacies. Along with pictures of important people, places, and events, you will learn about Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette like you never have before, in no time at all.

This accessible, immensely readable biography of Charles I by Jacob Abbott is part of the 'Makers of History' series, and is the best single-volume introduction to Charles' life and times, and the complex background to the English Civil War.