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Notorious Royal Marriages
- A Juicy Journey Through Nine Centuries of Dynasty, Destiny, and Desire
- Narrated by: Leslie Carroll
- Length: 23 hrs and 23 mins
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Publisher's summary
From the author of American Princess: The Love Story of Meghan Markle and Prince Harry comes a funny and delightful history of the royal weddings and marriages of Europe’s most famous—and infamous—monarchs.
Since time immemorial, royal marriages have had little to do with love—and almost everything to do with diplomacy and dynasty. Clashing personalities have joined in unholy matrimony to form such infamous couples as Russia’s Peter II and Catherine the Great, and France’s Henri II and Catherine de Medici—all with the purpose of begetting a male heir. But with tensions high and silverware flying, kings like England’s Henry II have fled to the beds of their nubile mistresses, while queens such as Eleanor of Aquitaine have plotted their revenge …
Full of the juicy gossip and bad behavior that characterized Royal Affairs, this book chronicles the love-hate marriages of the crowned heads of Europe—from the Angevins to Charles and Di—and ponders how dynasties ever survived at all.
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By: Antonia Fraser
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Mary Boleyn
- By: Alison Weir
- Narrated by: Maggie Mash
- Length: 13 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
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Mary Boleyn was the mistress of two kings, Francois I of France and Henry VIII of England, and sister to Anne Boleyn, Henry VIII’s second wife. In this astonishing and riveting biography, Alison Weir’s extensive research gives a new and detailed portrayal, in which she recounts that, contrary to popular belief, Mary was entirely undeserving of her posthumous notoriety as a great whore.
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Historiography not a bio
- By Mary Elizabeth Reynolds on 06-03-12
By: Alison Weir
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Young and Damned and Fair
- The Life of Catherine Howard, Fifth Wife of King Henry VIII
- By: Mr. Gareth Russell
- Narrated by: Jenny Funnell
- Length: 15 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
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Written with an exciting combination of narrative flair and historical authority, this interpretation of the tragic life of Catherine Howard, fifth wife of Henry VIII, breaks new ground in our understanding of the very young woman who became queen at a time of unprecedented social and political tension and whose terrible errors in judgment quickly led her to the executioner's block.
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Magnifent scholarly work
- By Linda Erlich on 08-08-17
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In the Shadow of the Empress
- The Defiant Lives of Maria Theresa, Mother of Marie Antoinette, and Her Daughters
- By: Nancy Goldstone
- Narrated by: Emma Newman
- Length: 23 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
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The vibrant, sprawling saga of Empress Maria Theresa - one of the most renowned women rulers in history - and three of her extraordinary daughters, including Marie Antoinette, the doomed queen of France.
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Awful narration!
- By Suanne Laqueur on 09-27-21
By: Nancy Goldstone
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The Six Wives of Henry VIII: A Captivating Guide to Catherine of Aragon, Anne Boleyn, Jane Seymour, Anne of Cleves, Catherine Howard, and Katherine Parr
- By: Captivating History
- Narrated by: Desmond Manny
- Length: 3 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
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Henry VIII, King of England and Ireland in the first half of the 16th century, is one of history’s most famous monarchs for many reasons. He ruled ruthlessly, was quick to cry “treason!” and execute, and equally quick to fall in and out of love. Henry changed the religious fabric of England forever and left his mark on the wider world - but what of the six women he took as his queens? From the regal and capable Catherine of Aragon to the patient and generous Katherine Parr, Henry’s wives represented a range of personalities, goals, beliefs, and influences on the king.
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Brief Overview of Henry VIII wives and mistresses.
- By Amazon Customer on 01-08-20
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Queens of the Crusades: Eleanor of Aquitaine and Her Successors
- By: Alison Weir
- Narrated by: Esther Wane
- Length: 17 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
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The Plantagenet queens of England played a role in some of the most dramatic events in our history. Crusading queens, queens in rebellion against their king, queen seductresses, learned queens, queens in battle, queens who enlivened England with the romantic culture of southern Europe - these determined women often broke through medieval constraints to exercise power and influence, for good and sometimes for ill.
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A real Masterpiece!
- By Amazon Customer on 03-30-21
By: Alison Weir
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Royal Witches
- Witchcraft and the Nobility in Fifteenth-Century England
- By: Gemma Hollman
- Narrated by: Heather Wilds
- Length: 10 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
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Until the mass hysteria of the seventeenth century, accusations of witchcraft in England were rare. However, four royal women, related in family and in court ties - Joan of Navarre, Eleanor Cobham, Jacquetta of Luxembourg, and Elizabeth Woodville - were accused of practicing witchcraft in order to kill or influence the king. In Royal Witches, Gemma Hollman explores the lives and the cases of these so-called witches, placing them in the historical context of 15th-century England, a setting rife with political upheaval and war.
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Hard to listen to
- By donna bahr on 12-10-20
By: Gemma Hollman
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Sister Queens
- The Noble, Tragic Lives of Katherine of Aragon and Juana, Queen of Castile
- By: Julia Fox
- Narrated by: Rosalyn Landor
- Length: 14 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
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The history books have cast Katherine of Aragon, the first queen of King Henry VIII of England, as the ultimate symbol of the Betrayed Woman, cruelly tossed aside in favor of her husband’s seductive mistress, Anne Boleyn. Katherine’s sister, Juana of Castile, wife of Philip of Burgundy and mother of the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, is portrayed as “Juana the Mad,” whose erratic behavior included keeping her beloved late husband’s coffin beside her for years.
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Sad but Fascinating Lives
- By Cariola on 06-29-12
By: Julia Fox
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Henry VIII
- By: Abigail Archer
- Narrated by: Sarah Nichols
- Length: 3 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
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Story
Henry VIII ruled England from 1509 to 1547. As a young man, he was fond of sports and hunting and was said to be uncommonly handsome. Standing more than six feet tall, he loomed large in the lives and minds of his subjects as he navigated his country through the tricky diplomatic and military hazards of the 16th century.
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WASTE OF TIME
- By The Louligan on 09-04-20
By: Abigail Archer
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The Queen and Di
- The Untold Story
- By: Ingrid Seward
- Narrated by: Emily Gray
- Length: 9 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
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Story
The Manchester Evening News declared, it took "a biographer like Ingrid Seward to unleash a sober, challenging glimpse into the one relationship of such scrutiny." That relationship is the complex, troubled, and often turbulent association between Princess Diana and Queen Elizabeth.
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Quite one sided.
- By Beatnik RN on 02-17-15
By: Ingrid Seward
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The Tudors: A Captivating Guide to the History of England from Henry VII to Elizabeth I
- By: Captivating History
- Narrated by: Desmond Manny
- Length: 3 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
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Five Tudor monarchs sat on the throne of England and Ireland from 1485 to 1603. The family earned their royal rights through strategic planning and battlefield prowess, and kept them because of intellect, strength, and sheer determination. The Tudors, one of England’s most powerful and famous royal dynasties, knitted together a fragmented and small island nation that became one of the world’s financial, colonial, and technological superpowers.
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In-depth Story
- By Gail Bishop on 10-16-18
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Royal unions have always been the stuff of scintillating gossip, from the passionate Plantagenets to Henry VIII’s alarming head count of wives and mistresses, to the Sapphic crushes of Mary and Anne Stuart right on up through the scandal-blighted coupling of Prince Charles and Princess Diana. Thrown into loveless, arranged marriages for political and economic gain, many royals were driven to indulge their pleasures outside the marital bed, engaging in delicious flirtations, lurid love letters, and rampant sex with voluptuous and willing partners.
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Accents in Vlad the Impaler chapter.
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Elegant palaces, dazzling power plays, shimmering jewels, and the grandest of all-or-nothing gambles—nothing can top real-life love among the royalty. Louis XIV defied God and law, permitting his married mistress Madame de Montespan to usurp the role of Queen of France, then secretly wed her successor. And the union of Prince William and the former Kate Middleton continues to enthrall the world. Full of marvelous tales, unforgettable scandals, and bedazzled nobles who refused to rule their hearts, this delightfully insightful book is what the sweetest royal dreams are made of.
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Orphaned from infancy, Catherine de’ Medici endured a tumultuous childhood. Married to the French king, she was widowed by forty, only to become the power behind the French throne during a period of intense civil strife. In 1546, Catherine gave birth to a daughter, Elisabeth de Valois, who would become Queen of Spain. Two years later, Catherine welcomed to her nursery the beguiling young Mary Queen of Scots, who would later become her daughter-in-law. Together, Catherine, Elisabeth, and Mary lived through the sea changes that transformed sixteenth-century Europe.
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Excellent writing, engaging narration
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The House of Beaufort
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The Wars of the Roses were a tumultuous period in English history, with family fighting family over the greatest prize in the kingdom—the throne of England. But what gave the eventual victor of these brutal and complex wars, Henry Tudor, the right to claim the crown? What made his Beaufort mother the great heiress of medieval England, and how exactly did an illegitimate line come to challenge the English monarchy? This book uncovers the rise of the Beauforts and tracks their fall during the 1460s and 1470s.
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Too many "ashumptions" for me...
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Royal Affairs
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pulpy but overdramatic
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Royal Pains
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The bad seeds on the family trees of the most powerful royal houses of Europe often became the most rotten of apples: über-violent autocrats Vlad the Impaler and Ivan the Terrible literally reigned in blood. Lettice Knollys strove to mimic the appearance of her cousin Elizabeth I and even stole her man. And Pauline Bonaparte scandalized her brother Napoleon by having a golden goblet fashioned in the shape of her breast. Royal Pains is a rollicking compendium of the most infamous, capricious, and insatiable bluebloods of Europe.
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Accents in Vlad the Impaler chapter.
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By: Leslie Carroll
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Royal Romances
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- By: Leslie Carroll
- Narrated by: Leslie Carroll
- Length: 22 hrs and 32 mins
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Elegant palaces, dazzling power plays, shimmering jewels, and the grandest of all-or-nothing gambles—nothing can top real-life love among the royalty. Louis XIV defied God and law, permitting his married mistress Madame de Montespan to usurp the role of Queen of France, then secretly wed her successor. And the union of Prince William and the former Kate Middleton continues to enthrall the world. Full of marvelous tales, unforgettable scandals, and bedazzled nobles who refused to rule their hearts, this delightfully insightful book is what the sweetest royal dreams are made of.
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Orphaned from infancy, Catherine de’ Medici endured a tumultuous childhood. Married to the French king, she was widowed by forty, only to become the power behind the French throne during a period of intense civil strife. In 1546, Catherine gave birth to a daughter, Elisabeth de Valois, who would become Queen of Spain. Two years later, Catherine welcomed to her nursery the beguiling young Mary Queen of Scots, who would later become her daughter-in-law. Together, Catherine, Elisabeth, and Mary lived through the sea changes that transformed sixteenth-century Europe.
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Too many "ashumptions" for me...
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Margaret Tudor, the elder sister of her more famous brother Henry VIII, is the single most important Tudor figure of this era that historians have consistently overlooked. Married at thirteen to the charismatic James IV of Scotland, a man more than twice her age, she would learn the skills of statecraft that would enable her to survive his early death, and to construct a powerful position in her adopted country of Scotland as she dealt with domestic issues as well as navigating international relations with England and France.
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Margaret Tudor / Queen of Scots
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The House of Dudley
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Each Tudor monarch made their name with a Dudley by their side—or by crushing one beneath their feet. The Dudleys thrived at the court of Henry VII but were sacrificed to the popularity of Henry VIII. Rising to prominence in the reign of Edward VI, the Dudleys lost it all by advancing Jane Grey to the throne over Mary I. That was until the reign of Elizabeth I, when the family was once again at the center of power and would do anything to remain there . . . With three generations of felled favorites, what was it that caused this family to keep rising so high and falling so low?
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Enjoyed this book
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By: Joanne Paul
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Mortal Monarchs
- 1,000 Years of Royal Deaths
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How the monarchs of England and Scotland met their deaths has been a wonderful mixture of violence, infections, overindulgence and occasional regicide. In Mortal Monarchs, medical historian Dr Suzie Edge examines 1,000 years of royal deaths to uncover the plots, accusations, rivalries and ever-present threat of poison that the kings and queens of old faced.
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Dead king juices
- By Erin on 01-12-23
By: Suzie Edge
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She-Wolves
- The Women Who Ruled England Before Elizabeth
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Story
In the tradition of Antonia Fraser and Alison Weir, prize-winning historian Helen Castor delivers a compelling, eye-opening examination of women and power in England, witnessed through the lives of six women who exercised power against all odds - and one who never got the chance. Exploring the narratives of the Empress Matilda, Eleanor of Aquitaine, Isabella of France, Margaret of Anjou, and other "she-wolves," as well as that of the Nine Days' Queen, Lady Jane Grey, Castor invokes a magisterial discussion of how much - and how little - has changed through the centuries.
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STORY TELLING IS ERRATIC
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By: Helen Castor
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A Rome of One's Own
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- Length: 14 hrs
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Performance
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Story
A Rome of One’s Own is a retelling of the history of Rome with the Important Things, but also all the things Roman history writers relegate to the background—or designate as domestic, feminine, or worthless. This is a history of individuals, twenty-one women who span the length of its territory and its centuries, who caused outrage, led armies in rebellion, wrote poetry, lived independently or under the thumb of emperors. A Rome of One’s Own highlights women overlooked and misunderstood, and through them offers a fascinating and groundbreaking chronicle of the ancient world.
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Excellent stories, needlessly foul language
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By: Emma Southon
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Off with Her Head
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New York Times bestseller Eleanor Herman, author of Sex with Kings and Sex with Presidents, returns with another work of popular history, exploring the history of misogyny against women with power from Cleopatra to Kamala Harris.
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Refreshing perspective
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By: Eleanor Herman
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Henry VIII: King and Court
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This magnificent biography of Henry VIII is set against the cultural, social and political background of his court - the most spectacular court ever seen in England - and the splendour of his many sumptuous palaces. An entertaining narrative packed with colourful description and a wealth of anecdotal evidence, but also a comprehensive analytical study of the development of both monarch and court during a crucial period in English history.
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A concise focus with tremendous detail
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By: Alison Weir
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The Lady in the Tower
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- Unabridged
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Story
The imprisonment and execution of Queen Anne Boleyn, Henry VIII's second wife, in 1536 was unprecedented in English history and never before has there been a book devoted entirely to her fall. But here Alison Weir has reassessed the evidence and created a richly researched and detailed portrait of the last days of one of the most influential and important figures in English history.
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Nicely focused on Anne Boleyn
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By: Alison Weir
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Unruly
- The Ridiculous History of England's Kings and Queens
- By: David Mitchell
- Narrated by: David Mitchell
- Length: 11 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
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Story
In Unruly, David Mitchell explores how early England’s monarchs, while acting as feared rulers firmly guiding their subjects’ destinies, were in reality a bunch of lucky bastards who were mostly as silly and weird in real life as they appear today in their portraits.
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Hugely Entertaining (If You Like English History)
- By Jean Ogg on 10-09-23
By: David Mitchell
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Catherine de' Medici
- The Life and Times of the Serpent Queen
- By: Mary Hollingsworth
- Narrated by: Rachel Bavidge, Sophie Hunter
- Length: 15 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
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History is rarely kind to women of power, but few have had their reputations quite so brutally shredded as Catherine de’ Medici, Italian-born queen of France and influential mother of three successive French kings during that country’s long sequence of sectarian wars in the second half of the sixteenth century.
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Countering centuries of disinformation
- By Adeliese Baumann on 09-15-24
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Budapest
- Portrait of a City Between East and West
- By: Victor Sebestyen
- Narrated by: Elinor Coleman
- Length: 16 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
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From the critically acclaimed historian Victor Sebestyen, the enthralling account of historical and cultural events that defined Budapest, a unique city on the fault line between East and West in the heart of Europe.
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Absolutely Amazing 🤩
- By Elizabeth Hoadley on 04-28-24
By: Victor Sebestyen
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The Last Baron
- The Paris Kidnapping That Brought Down an Empire
- By: Tom Sancton
- Narrated by: Arthur Morey
- Length: 9 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
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Launched in the 1880s by the first baron, the Empain industrial empire spread from Belgium and France to span more than a dozen countries. When Baron Édouard-Jean “Wado” Empain took over, he further expanded the company, became a key player in France’s nuclear sector, and, by the mid-1970s, was one of the country’s most powerful business leaders - a self-described “master of the universe”. Wado’s vertiginous rise caught the eye of Alain Cailloll, a small-time gangster who had grown up in a wealthy family before embracing a life of crime.
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Tragic Story Well Told
- By Nice guy on 08-08-22
By: Tom Sancton
What listeners say about Notorious Royal Marriages
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- ScotDeerie
- 05-26-24
Most enjoyable!
Lots of little juicy tidbits you won’t hear on a documentary on The History Channel. Makes you wish that Queen Victoria’s diaries and letters hadn’t been edited by her daughter or that Czarina Alexa hadn’t destroyed her diaries and love letters.
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- Julie M. Farrer
- 11-30-23
Wtf with the accents
The attempt at quotes using various accents and pronouncing names and places with accents is so bad, it makes the book almost unlistenable. It makes it very hard to focus on the story. The accents are downright awful and distracting.
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2 people found this helpful
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- BSP
- 08-31-23
Unfortunate narration, opinionated inserts
I really wanted to like this, and had been hoping for more interesting stories to go deeper into the relationship side of powerful marriages. There are some bits of that, but mostly it takes the easy road out of reiterating what we already know about inequality in marriages and insisting that women have been maligned throughout history, which is true enough but not what I was promised from the book's title and blurb.
Also, the narration is just flat out awful. It's incredibly slow -- I had to listen to it on 1.75 speed just to feel like I could follow it, which is higher than my usual listening speed -- and the narrator, who is also the author, oddly emphasizes phrases. There is also an attempt at various accents, some of which aren't too bad but many of which are just painful (especially the Italian ones). She also inserts a lot of opinion into the piece, often without substantiated sources behind it, so it comes across as "here is why I think the following misunderstood women were really mistreated geniuses" rather than a more persuasive argument of how they were successful despite popular modern belief otherwise. Some of the language used is also just jarringly... attempting to be hip? Going from badly-accented primary sources to claiming someone is "crazy like a fox" was just incredibly winceworthy.
It's a great idea, but the narration was just flat-out problematic and the opinions were really too much for me to enjoy it.
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2 people found this helpful