Kings & queens : a chronicle of history's most interesting monarchies
(Books)

Includes index.

From Philip IV of France's persecution of the Knights Templar in the fourteenth century to the troubled lives of Monaco's current royal family and from the Norman invasion to Windsor family feuds, Kings & Queens reveals the scandals, secrets, and sadness behind continental Europe's monarchies, including: Monaco: The "fairytale" wedding and marriage of Grace Kelly to Prince Ranier III that kep rumor mongers and the press well fed with gossip, innuendo, and sensation. Spain: The imprisonment of Queen Juana the Mad, one of several Spanish monarchs crippled by insanity and inbreeding. Austria-Hungary: The bizarre double suicide of Crown Prince Rudolph and Baroness Maria Vestera. Belgium: Oppression and exploitation in Africa's Congo Basin, presided by King Leopold II. England: The turbulent marriage and tragic fate of Diana, Princess of Wales, and the reaction of the royal family, the press, and the public to her death in a car crash in 1997.