Throughout the centuries, royal mistresses have been worshiped,
feared, envied, and reviled. They set the fashions, encouraged the
arts, and, in some cases, ruled nations. Eleanor Herman's "Sex with
Kings" takes us into the throne rooms and bedrooms of Europe's most
powerful monarchs. Alive with flamboyant characters, outrageous
humor, and stirring poignancy, this glittering tale of passion and
politics chronicles five hundred years of scintillating women and
the kings who loved them.
Curiously, the main function of a royal mistress was not to
provide the king with sex but with companionship. Forced to marry
repulsive foreign princesses, kings sought solace with women of
their own choice. And what women they were! From Madame de
Pompadour, the famous mistress of Louis XV, who kept her position
for nineteen years despite her frigidity, to modern-day Camilla
Parker-Bowles, who usurped none other than the glamorous Diana,
Princess of Wales.
The successful royal mistress made herself irreplaceable. She
was ready to converse gaily with him when she was tired, make love
until all hours when she was ill, and cater to his every whim.
Wearing a mask of beaming delight over any and all discomforts, she
was never to be exhausted, complaining, or grief-stricken.
True, financial rewards for services rendered were of royal
proportions -- some royal mistresses earned up to $200 million in
titles, pensions, jewels, and palaces. Some kings allowed their
mistresses to exercise unlimited political power. But for all its
grandeur, a royal court was a scorpion's nest of insatiable greed,
unquenchable lust, and vicious ambition. Hundreds of beautiful
women vied to unseat the royal mistress. Manywould suffer the
slings and arrows of negative public opinion, some met with tragic
ends and were pensioned off to make room for younger women. But the
royal mistress often had the last laugh, as she lived well and
richly off the fruits of her "sins."
From the dawn of time, power has been a mighty aphrodisiac. With
diaries, personal letters, and diplomatic dispatches, Eleanor
Herman's trailblazing research reveals the dynamics of sex and
power, rivalry and revenge, at the most brilliant courts of Europe.
Wickedly witty and endlessly entertaining, "Sex with Kings" is a
chapter of women's history that has remained unwritten -- until
now.
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