A Treasury of Royal Scandals

A Treasury of Royal Scandals: The Shocking True Stories of History’s Wickedest, Weirdest, Most Wanton Kings, Queens, Tsars, Popes, and Emperors (2001)
by Micheal Farquhar

This is the book I’ve always been looking for. A very enjoyable lite but informative read on the European monarchy and Popes throughout the history. What’s facisnating about the misbehaving royalties is that they are people with unlimited power and an inbred sense of their own superioririty, which makes nowadays modern powerful figures far more pale and dull in comparison.

I like the stories about the sickness of inter-marriage for sake of royal lineage and blood purity, such as Spanish’s Joanna the Mad and Phillip the Fair and their freak of nature generations of royal descendents that inherited their mad & deformed gene. Henry VIII and his six wives (and the follow-up feud between Bloody Mary and Elizabeth) is always a great story no matter how many times it was told. I’m amazed how digest and easy-to-understand the author told the story of the complicated ‘War of the Roses.’ The mishaving Popes were outrageously unbelievable, their wickedness rivaled the perversity and cruelty of the worst of Roman Emperors (but they are worst because they justified themselves as speaking for God and Church). Rasputin the mad Russian monk is one crazy story. The gruesome, and sometimes humiliating deaths of kings and Queens are more specular as well. It is also complete with detailed Family Tree (so you’d never get lost who’s who).