
The Rebel Empresses
Elisabeth of Austria and Eugénie of France, Power and Glamour in the Struggle for Europe
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Narrated by:
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Tamsin Kennard
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By:
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Nancy Goldstone
About this listen
From the acclaimed author of In the Shadow of the Empress comes the thrilling chronicle of two of the most influential and glamorous women in nineteenth-century Europe—Elisabeth, empress of Austria, and Eugénie, empress of France—and their efforts to rule amid the scandal, intrigue, tragedy, and violence of their era.
When they married Emperors Franz Joseph and Napoleon III, respectively, Elisabeth of Austria and Eugénie of France became two of the most famous women on the planet. Not only were they both young and beautiful—becoming cultural and fashion icons of their time—but they played a pivotal role in ruling their realms during a tempestuous era characterized by unprecedented political and technological change.
Fearless, adventurous, and independent, Elisabeth and Eugénie represented a new kind of empress—one who rebelled against tradition and anticipated and embraced modern values. Yet both women endured hardship in their private and public lives. Elisabeth was plagued by a mother-in-law who snatched her infant children away and undermined her authority at court. Eugénie’s husband was an infamous philanderer who could not match the military prowess of his namesake. Between them, Elisabeth and Eugénie were personally involved in every major international confrontation in their turbulent century, which witnessed thrilling technological advances, as well as revolutions, assassinations, and wars.
With her characteristic in-depth research and vivid writing, Nancy Goldstone brings to life these two remarkable women, as Europe goes through the convulsions that led up to the international landscape we recognize today.
PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.
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Story
The fifteenth century was a turbulent age: the Hundred Years War between England and France, and the Wars of the Roses dominated the lives of people both inside and out of the royal courts. Joan of Navarre, Katherine of Valois, Margaret of Anjou, Elizabeth Wydeville and Anne Neville were the queens who stood by England's sovereigns, caught up in wars that changed the course of their lives, and the course of history. They were also formidable women who defied the limitations of their times, often living out the brutal consequences of their determination.
By: Alison Weir
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An Intimate Portrait of Empress Sisi of Austria
- By: Count Corti
- Narrated by: Virtual Voice
- Length: 17 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
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Empress Elisabeth of Austria (known by all as “Sisi”), was considered to be the most beautiful woman of her time. Looks she had in abundance and they gained her the heart of an Emperor before her sixteenth birthday. Emperor Franz Josef was tall and handsome, and for him it was love at first sight. She loved him as well and said yes. Now young, newly-wed, and an Empress, the world was at her feet. All the people truly wanted was simply to gaze upon her. How could this ever go wrong …? But it did … horribly wrong. Sisi was a woman out of her time and place. She wanted the one thing ...
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I just wish it wasn’t a computer reading it
- By Zane on 01-26-25
By: Count Corti
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Four Queens
- The Provencal Sisters Who Ruled Europe
- By: Nancy Goldstone
- Narrated by: Josephine Bailey
- Length: 11 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
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Set against the backdrop of the turbulent 13th century, a time of chivalry and crusades, poetry, knights, and monarchs, comes the story of the four beautiful daughters of the count of Provence, whose brilliant marriages made them the queens of France, England, Germany, and Sicily.
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Interesting, informative
- By Eunice on 12-06-07
By: Nancy Goldstone
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The Maid and the Queen
- The Secret History of Joan of Arc
- By: Nancy Goldstone
- Narrated by: Sandra Burr
- Length: 11 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
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Even when the dauphin’s own mother betrayed him, Yolande of Aragon, Queen of Sicily, fought to save her son-in-law and his claim to the throne. But the enemy seemed invincible. Just as French hopes dimmed, an astonishingly courageous young woman named Joan of Arc arrived from the farthest recesses of the kingdom, claiming that she carried a divine message. Now, on the 600th anniversary of the birth of Joan of Arc, this beautifully written book explores the relationship between these two remarkable women.
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Compelling but not-so-secret history
- By Tad Davis on 07-26-12
By: Nancy Goldstone
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The Thistle and the Rose
- By: Linda Porter
- Narrated by: Alix Dunmore
- Length: 9 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
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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
- By mariac25 on 09-24-24
By: Linda Porter
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The Waiting Game
- The Untold Story of the Women Who Served the Tudor Queens
- By: Nicola Clark
- Narrated by: Nicola Clark, Karen Cass
- Length: 11 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
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Every Tudor Queen had ladies-in-waiting. They were her confidantes and her chaperones. Only the Queen's ladies had the right to enter her most private chambers, spending hours helping her to get dressed and undressed, caring for her clothes and jewels, listening to her secrets. But they also held a unique power. A quiet word behind the scenes, an appropriately timed gift, a well-negotiated marriage alliance were all forms of political agency wielded expertly by women.
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One of the best!
- By Patt LaPierre on 01-13-25
By: Nicola Clark
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Catherine de' Medici
- The Life and Times of the Serpent Queen
- By: Mary Hollingsworth
- Narrated by: Rachel Bavidge
- 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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Don’t bother
- By Anonymous User on 12-05-24
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Catherine de Medici
- Renaissance Queen of France
- By: Leonie Frieda
- Narrated by: Sarah Le Fevre
- Length: 21 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
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Poisoner, despot, necromancer - the dark legend of Catherine de Medici is centuries old. In this critically hailed biography, Leonie Frieda reclaims the story of this unjustly maligned queen to reveal a skilled ruler battling extraordinary political and personal odds - from a troubled childhood in Florence to her marriage to Henry, son of King Francis I of France; from her transformation of French culture to her fight to protect her throne and her sons' birthright. Based on thousands of private letters, it is a remarkable account of one of the most influential women to wear a crown.
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Narrator didn't get one name right
- By Georgina García- Menocal on 09-15-19
By: Leonie Frieda
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Mary Chesnut's Civil War
- By: Mary Chesnut, C. Vann Woodward
- Narrated by: Suzanne Toren
- Length: 50 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
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The incomparable Civil War diarist Mary Chesnut wrote that she had the luck “always to stumble in on the real show.” Married to a high-ranking member of the Confederate government, she was ideally placed to watch and to record the South’s headlong plunge to ruin, and she left in her journals an unsurpassed account of the old regime’s death throes, its moment of high drama in world history. With intelligence and passion she described the turbulent events of politics and war, as well as the complex society around her.
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Fascinating look at upper class South
- By MikeEC on 04-08-25
By: Mary Chesnut, and others
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The Lost Queen
- The Surprising Life of Catherine of Braganza: The Forgotten Queen Who Bridged Two Worlds
- By: Sophie Shorland
- Narrated by: Ruth Lass
- Length: 8 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
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A long-overlooked figure in history, Catherine has a crucial place in the history of the British Empire: she may have failed to produce an heir to the throne, but her marriage to Charles in 1662 marked a key turning point in Britain's imperial ascendancy, for part of her dowry was Bombay, Britain's first territory of the Indian subcontinent. Catherine also was highly influential in the worlds of fashion, Baroque art and music, and food and culture. She popularized tea drinking, bringing England's national drink into fashion for the first time.
By: Sophie Shorland
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Jane Boleyn
- The True Story of the Infamous Lady Rochford
- By: Julia Fox
- Narrated by: Rosalyn Landor
- Length: 12 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
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In a life of extraordinary drama, Jane Boleyn was catapulted from relative obscurity to the inner circle of King Henry VIII. As powerful men and women around her became victims of Henry's ruthless and absolute power - including her own husband and sister-in-law Queen Anne Boleyn - Jane's allegiance to the volatile monarchy was sustained and rewarded. But the price for her loyalty would eventually be her undoing and the ruination of her name
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Nothing new here
- By Caroline on 02-22-08
By: Julia Fox
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Young Queens
- Three Renaissance Women and the Price of Power
- By: Leah Redmond Chang
- Narrated by: Olivia Dowd
- Length: 18 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
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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
- By WEHOcloset on 09-22-23
Never a dull moment
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I like the writing.
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Interesting read
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Excellent book!
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It occurred in Spain in the ‘20s & ‘30s and was guided by consensus and common ownership of factories and businesses by the workers. They “owned” the means of production.
AVIS is an example today-it is owned & managed by employees of AVIS. Hardly assassins.
2 young Empresses
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