17th century
18th century
19th century
2006
2007
2010
2014
2020
2023
2024
2025
A01=Eleanor Herman
adult nonfiction
adultery
aristocracy
Author_Eleanor Herman
bargain books
behavior
behavioral psychology
berlin
biographies
biography
book club
bookmooch
books for women
borrowed
british history
buff
Category=JBFW
Category=JHB
Category=NHTB
court life
courtesans
courts and courtiers
cultural history
culture
diplomacy
dno
ebooks
england
english
eq_bestseller
eq_history
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
eq_society-politics
europe
european
european history
european royalty
favorites
female authors
feminism
feminism books
feminist
feminist book
feminist books
feminist gifts
feminist theory
france
french
french history
from goodreads
gender
general history
german
german history
germany
gift
gifts for history buffs
good
good books for women
gossip
government
great britain
hardcover
health
herman
hillel
historia
historical
historical books
historical fiction
historical-nonfiction
history
history biography
history books
history buff
history buff gifts
history gifts
history nonfiction
history of sexuality
history teacher
history teacher gifts
human
human nature
international
italian
italy
kings
kings queens and rulers
leadership
love
lover
madame de pompadour
marriage
medieval
mental
mental health
mental health books
middle ages
miscellaneous history
mistress
monarch
monarchbargain books
monarchs
monarchwomens history
monarchy
monarth century
month
mxe4tressen
nature
nf
nf history
nonfic
nonfiction
other
paperback
paramours
place europe
political
politics
popular history
power
prostitutes
prostitution
psychology
psychology book
psychology books
queen elizabeth
queen elizabeth gifts
queens
reference
renaissance
research
romance
royal favorites
royal history
royal mistresses
royals
royalty
royalty and aristocracy
russia
scandal
self
self love books for women
sex
sex scandals
sexuality
social
social history
social life
social psychology
social science
society
sociology
sociology books
spain
study
swapped
teacher
theory
trade paperback
unfinished
unread
used
woman
women
women in history
women s studies
women's
women's history month
womens history
womens studies
world
world history
Product details
- ISBN 9780060585440
- Weight: 265g
- Dimensions: 135 x 203mm
- Publication Date: 17 Mar 2005
- Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers Inc
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Paperback
Secure
checkout
Fast Shipping
Easy returns
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. Many would 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.
The author of Sex with Kings and Sex with the Queen, New York Times bestselling historian Eleanor Herman has hosted episodes for the National Geographic Channel and the History Channel's Lost Worlds. Born in Baltimore, Maryland, she is married and lives in McLean, Virginia.
