Queen Mother And Stateswoman

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Queen, Mother, and Stateswoman

Author : Silvia Z. Mitchell
Publisher : Penn State Press
ISBN 13 : 0271084103
Total Pages : 449 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (71 download)

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Book Synopsis Queen, Mother, and Stateswoman by : Silvia Z. Mitchell

Download or read book Queen, Mother, and Stateswoman written by Silvia Z. Mitchell and published by Penn State Press. This book was released on 2019-05-30 with total page 449 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: When Philip IV of Spain died in 1665, his heir, Carlos II, was three years old. In addition to this looming dynastic crisis, decades of enormous military commitments had left Spain a virtually bankrupt state with vulnerable frontiers and a depleted army. In Silvia Z. Mitchell’s revisionist account, Queen, Mother, and Stateswoman, Queen Regent Mariana of Austria emerges as a towering figure at court and on the international stage, while her key collaborators—the secretaries, ministers, and diplomats who have previously been ignored or undervalued—take their rightful place in history. Mitchell provides a nuanced account of Mariana of Austria’s ten-year regency (1665–75) of the global Spanish Empire and examines her subsequent role as queen mother. Drawing from previously unmined primary sources, including Council of State deliberations, diplomatic correspondence, Mariana’s and Carlos’s letters, royal household papers, manuscripts, and legal documents, Mitchell describes how, over the course of her regency, Mariana led the monarchy out of danger and helped redefine the military and diplomatic blocs of Europe in Spain’s favor. She follows Mariana’s exile from court and recounts how the dowager queen used her extensive connections and diplomatic experience to move the negotiations for her son’s marriage forward, effectively exploiting the process to regain her position. A new narrative of the Spanish Habsburg monarchy in the later seventeenth century, this volume advances our knowledge of women’s legitimate political entitlement in the early modern period. It will be welcomed by scholars and students of queenship, women’s studies, and early modern Spain.

Game of Crowns

Author : Christopher Andersen
Publisher : Simon and Schuster
ISBN 13 : 1476743975
Total Pages : 352 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (767 download)

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Book Synopsis Game of Crowns by : Christopher Andersen

Download or read book Game of Crowns written by Christopher Andersen and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2016-04-19 with total page 352 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A moving and compulsively readable look into the lives, loves, relationships, and rivalries among the three women at the heart of the British royal family today: Queen Elizabeth II, Camilla Parker-Bowles, and Kate Middleton—from the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Good Son, These Few Precious Days, and The Day Diana Died. One has been famous longer than anyone on the planet—a dutiful daughter, a frustrated mother, a doting grandmother, a steel-willed taskmaster, a wily stateswoman, an enduring symbol of an institution that has lasted a thousand years, and a global icon who has not only been an eyewitness to history but a part of it. One is the great-granddaughter of a King’s mistress and one of the most famous “other women” of the modern age—a woman who somehow survived a firestorm of scorn to ultimately marry the love of her life, and in the process replace her arch rival, one of the most beloved figures of the twentieth century. One is a beautiful commoner, the university-educated daughter of a flight attendant-turned-millionaire entrepreneur, a fashion scion the equal of her adored mother-in-law, and the first woman since King George V’s wife, Queen Mary, to lay claim to being the daughter-in-law of one future king, the wife another, and the mother of yet another. Game of Crowns is an in-depth and exquisitely researched exploration of the lives of these three remarkable women and the striking and sometimes subtle ways in which their lives intersect and intertwine. Examining their surprising similarities and stark differences, Andersen travels beyond the royal palace walls to illustrate who these three women really are today—and how they will directly reshape the landscape of the monarchy.

Queen of the World: Elizabeth II: Sovereign and Stateswoman

Author : Robert Hardman
Publisher : Simon and Schuster
ISBN 13 : 1643130935
Total Pages : 368 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (431 download)

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Book Synopsis Queen of the World: Elizabeth II: Sovereign and Stateswoman by : Robert Hardman

Download or read book Queen of the World: Elizabeth II: Sovereign and Stateswoman written by Robert Hardman and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2019-01-01 with total page 368 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Written by renowned royal biographer, Robert Hardman, and with privileged access to the Royal Family and the Royal Household, this is a brilliant new portrait of the most famous woman in the world and her place in it. On today's world stage, there is one leader who stands apart from the rest. Queen Elizabeth II has seen more of the planet and its people than any other head of state and has engaged with the world like no other monarch in modern history. The iconic monarch never ventured further than the Isle of Wight until the age of 20 but since then has now visited over 130 countries across the globe in the line of duty, acting as diplomat, hostess and dignitary as the world stage as changed beyond recognition. It is a story full of drama, intrigue, exotic and sometimes dangerous destinations, heroes, rogues, pomp and glamour, but at the heart of it all a woman who's won the hearts of the world.

A Woman First: First Woman

Author : Selina Meyer
Publisher : Abrams
ISBN 13 : 1683354117
Total Pages : 198 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (833 download)

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Book Synopsis A Woman First: First Woman by : Selina Meyer

Download or read book A Woman First: First Woman written by Selina Meyer and published by Abrams. This book was released on 2019-03-19 with total page 198 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A hilarious parody memoir for the beloved Veep character portrayed for seven seasons by Emmy-winner Julia Louis-Dreyfus. Born and raised deep in the American heartland of God-fearing suburban Maryland, young Selina Eaton learned to love her country and her fellow man from her parents, Catherine, a sportswoman, dog lover, and philanthropist, and Gordon, or “Daddy” as she always called him, a businessman and entrepreneur. From an early age, Selina, an active, curious, happy-go-lucky child, showed an uncanny ability to relate to others and to solve their real-world problems with real-world solutions. In this she was inspired by her idol: feminist, humanitarian, stateswoman, and first lady, Eleanor Roosevelt. Eleanor Roosevelt maintained a lively relationship with many prominent figures of her time, including Adlai Stevenson, John F. Kennedy, Albert Schweitzer, and probably Pablo Casals. She inspired countless women to break out of the established roles for women in society, among them the pioneering aviatrix Amelia Earhart, with whom she flew several times. Dubbed the “Queen of the Air,” Amelia Earhart captivated the nation both with her bravery, skill, and daring when flying her planes and when challenging society’s hidebound attitudes as to what constituted a proper place for women. America mourned when she disappeared mysteriously somewhere in the Pacific during an attempted around-the-world flight in 1937. Speculation continues to this day as to Amelia’s ultimate fate, even as hope has faded that she may yet be found alive. With wit, wisdom, eloquence, and fearless honesty, Selina Meyer reveals for the first time what really goes on in the halls of power, including the ultimate hall, the White House. It’s all here: the triumphs, the tragedies, the personalities, and the momentous events that have shaped our times, brought together in a page-turning tale told as only Selina Meyer could tell it. Selina Meyer’s compassion, her sense of humor, her grace, and her uncommon willingness to bare her heart make this story revelatory, beautifully rendered, and unlike any other president’s memoir ever written. First Woman: A Woman First would be a fitting title for a book about Selina Meyer, Eleanor Roosevelt, or Amelia Earhart, but in this case, it is about Selina Meyer.

The Body of the Queen

Author : Regina Schulte
Publisher : Berghahn Books
ISBN 13 : 9781845451219
Total Pages : 382 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (512 download)

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Book Synopsis The Body of the Queen by : Regina Schulte

Download or read book The Body of the Queen written by Regina Schulte and published by Berghahn Books. This book was released on 2006 with total page 382 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Inspired by existential thought, but using ethnographic methods, Michael Jackson explores a variety of contemporary topics, including 9/11, episodes from the war in Sierra Leone and its aftermath, the marginalization of indigenous Australians, the application of new technologies, mundane forms of ritualization, the magical use of language, the sociality of violence, the prose of suffering, and the discourse of human rights. Throughout this compelling work, Jackson demonstrates that existentialism, far from being a philosophy of individual being, enables us to explore issues of social existence and coexistence in new ways, and to theorise events as the sites of a dynamic interplay between the finite possibilities of the situations in which human beings find themselves and the capacities they possess for creating viable forms of social life."--BOOK JACKET.

Reflected Glory

Author : Sally Bedell Smith
Publisher : Simon and Schuster
ISBN 13 : 1476770352
Total Pages : 576 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (767 download)

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Book Synopsis Reflected Glory by : Sally Bedell Smith

Download or read book Reflected Glory written by Sally Bedell Smith and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2013-11-05 with total page 576 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A biography of Pamela Churchill Harriman, based on over 800 interviews and archival research, charting her life from marriage to Churchill’s son, Randolph, through two further marriages to her eventual appointment as US Ambassador to France.

Habsburg Madrid

Author : Jesús Escobar
Publisher : Penn State Press
ISBN 13 : 0271091886
Total Pages : 639 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (71 download)

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Book Synopsis Habsburg Madrid by : Jesús Escobar

Download or read book Habsburg Madrid written by Jesús Escobar and published by Penn State Press. This book was released on 2022-04-25 with total page 639 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: With its selection as the court of the Spanish Habsburgs, Madrid became the de facto capital of a global empire, a place from which momentous decisions were made whose implications were felt in all corners of a vast domain. By the seventeenth century, however, political theory produced in the Monarquía Hispánica dealt primarily with the concept of decline. In this book, Jesús Escobar argues that the buildings of Madrid tell a different story about the final years of the Habsburg dynasty. Madrid took on a grander public face over the course of the seventeenth century, creating a “court space” for residents and visitors alike. Drawing from the representation of the city’s architecture in prints, books, and paintings, as well as re-created plans standing in for lost documents, Escobar demonstrates how, through shared forms and building materials, the architecture of Madrid embodied the monarchy and promoted its chief political ideals of justice and good government. Habsburg Madrid explores palaces, public plazas, a town hall, a courthouse, and a prison, narrating the lived experience of architecture in a city where a wide roster of protagonists, from architects and builders to royal patrons, court bureaucrats, and private citizens, helped shape a modern capital. Richly illustrated, highly original, and written by a leading scholar in the field, this volume disrupts the traditional narrative about seventeenth-century Spanish decadencia. It will be welcomed by specialists in Habsburg Spain and by historians of art, architecture, culture, economics, and politics.

Ladies of the Field

Author : Amanda Adams
Publisher : Greystone Books Ltd
ISBN 13 : 1553654331
Total Pages : 240 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (536 download)

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Book Synopsis Ladies of the Field by : Amanda Adams

Download or read book Ladies of the Field written by Amanda Adams and published by Greystone Books Ltd. This book was released on 2010 with total page 240 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Adams chronicles the contributions that women have made to the science of archaeology, by focusing on seven women-- some famous, some overlooked.

Her Majesty

Author : Robert Hardman
Publisher : Simon and Schuster
ISBN 13 : 163936045X
Total Pages : 384 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (393 download)

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Book Synopsis Her Majesty by : Robert Hardman

Download or read book Her Majesty written by Robert Hardman and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2021-11-15 with total page 384 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The hotly anticipated American edition of Robert Hardman's biography of Queen Elizabeth (formerly Our Queen in the U.K.)—An intimate portrait of England's soon-to-be longest reigning queen, in celebration of her diamond jubilee—and the first-ever book interview with her grandson, Prince William. History has known no monarch like her. She has traveled farther than all her predecessors put together and lived longer than any of them. She has known more historic figures than anyone alive—from Churchill to Mandela, de Gaulle to Obama. Now, the distinguished royal writer Robert Hardman has been granted special access to the world of Queen Elizabeth II to produce this enthralling new portrait of one of the most popular pubic figures on earth. Not only has Elizabeth II reigned through Britain’s transformation from an imperial power to a multi-cultural nation, but she has also steered the monarchy through more reforms in the last twenty-five years than in the previous century. Queen Elizabeth II sits at the head of an ancient institution that remains simultaneously popular, regal, inclusive, and relevant in a twenty-first-century world. It is down to neither luck nor longevity: it is down to the shrewd judgment of a thoroughly modern monarchy—with no small assistance from the longest-serving consort in history. Here is the inside story.

Status, Power, and Identity in Early Modern France

Author : Jonathan Dewald
Publisher : Penn State Press
ISBN 13 : 0271067462
Total Pages : 252 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (71 download)

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Book Synopsis Status, Power, and Identity in Early Modern France by : Jonathan Dewald

Download or read book Status, Power, and Identity in Early Modern France written by Jonathan Dewald and published by Penn State Press. This book was released on 2015-06-15 with total page 252 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Status, Power, and Identity in Early Modern France, Jonathan Dewald explores European aristocratic society by looking closely at one of its most prominent families. The Rohan were rich, powerful, and respected, but Dewald shows that there were also weaknesses in their apparently secure position near the top of French society. Family finances were unstable, and competing interests among family members generated conflicts and scandals; political ambitions led to other troubles, partly because aristocrats like the Rohan intensely valued individual achievement, even if it came at the expense of the family’s needs. Dewald argues that aristocratic power in the Old Regime reflected ongoing processes of negotiation and refashioning, in which both men and women played important roles. So did figures from outside the family—government officials, middle-class intellectuals and businesspeople, and many others. Dewald describes how the Old Regime’s ruling class maintained its power and the obstacles it encountered in doing so.

Catherine of Aragon

Author : Theresa Earenfight
Publisher : Penn State Press
ISBN 13 : 0271091924
Total Pages : 323 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (71 download)

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Book Synopsis Catherine of Aragon by : Theresa Earenfight

Download or read book Catherine of Aragon written by Theresa Earenfight and published by Penn State Press. This book was released on 2021-12-07 with total page 323 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Catherine of Aragon is an elusive subject. Despite her status as a Spanish infanta, Princess of Wales, and Queen of England, few of her personal letters have survived, and she is obscured in the contemporary royal histories. In this evocative biography, Theresa Earenfight presents an intimate and engaging portrait of Catherine told through the objects that she left behind. A pair of shoes, a painting, a rosary, a fur-trimmed baby blanket—each of these things took meaning from the ways Catherine experienced and perceived them. Through an examination of the inventories listing the few possessions Catherine owned at her death, Earenfight follows the arc of Catherine’s life: first as a coddled child in Castile, then as a young adult alone in England after the death of her first husband, a devoted wife and doting mother, a patron of the arts and of universities, and, finally, a dear friend to the women and men who stood by her after Henry VIII set her aside in favor of another woman. Based on traces and fragments, these portraits of Catherine are interpretations of a life lived five centuries ago. Earenfight creates a compelling picture of a multifaceted, intelligent woman and a queen of England. Engagingly written, this cultural and emotional biography of Catherine brings us closer to understanding her life from her own perspective.

Queen, Mother, and Stateswoman

Author : Silvia Z. Mitchell
Publisher : Penn State Press
ISBN 13 : 027108412X
Total Pages : 313 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (71 download)

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Book Synopsis Queen, Mother, and Stateswoman by : Silvia Z. Mitchell

Download or read book Queen, Mother, and Stateswoman written by Silvia Z. Mitchell and published by Penn State Press. This book was released on 2019-05-30 with total page 313 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: When Philip IV of Spain died in 1665, his heir, Carlos II, was three years old. In addition to this looming dynastic crisis, decades of enormous military commitments had left Spain a virtually bankrupt state with vulnerable frontiers and a depleted army. In Silvia Z. Mitchell’s revisionist account, Queen, Mother, and Stateswoman, Queen Regent Mariana of Austria emerges as a towering figure at court and on the international stage, while her key collaborators—the secretaries, ministers, and diplomats who have previously been ignored or undervalued—take their rightful place in history. Mitchell provides a nuanced account of Mariana of Austria’s ten-year regency (1665–75) of the global Spanish Empire and examines her subsequent role as queen mother. Drawing from previously unmined primary sources, including Council of State deliberations, diplomatic correspondence, Mariana’s and Carlos’s letters, royal household papers, manuscripts, and legal documents, Mitchell describes how, over the course of her regency, Mariana led the monarchy out of danger and helped redefine the military and diplomatic blocs of Europe in Spain’s favor. She follows Mariana’s exile from court and recounts how the dowager queen used her extensive connections and diplomatic experience to move the negotiations for her son’s marriage forward, effectively exploiting the process to regain her position. A new narrative of the Spanish Habsburg monarchy in the later seventeenth century, this volume advances our knowledge of women’s legitimate political entitlement in the early modern period. It will be welcomed by scholars and students of queenship, women’s studies, and early modern Spain.

The Creation of the French Royal Mistress

Author : Tracy Adams
Publisher : Penn State Press
ISBN 13 : 0271086440
Total Pages : 249 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (71 download)

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Book Synopsis The Creation of the French Royal Mistress by : Tracy Adams

Download or read book The Creation of the French Royal Mistress written by Tracy Adams and published by Penn State Press. This book was released on 2020-03-24 with total page 249 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Kings throughout medieval and early modern Europe had extraconjugal sexual partners. Only in France, however, did the royal mistress become a quasi-institutionalized political position. This study explores the emergence and development of the position of French royal mistress through detailed portraits of nine of its most significant incumbents: Agnès Sorel, Anne de Pisseleu d’Heilly, Diane de Poitiers, Gabrielle d’Estrées, Françoise Louise de La Baume Le Blanc, Françoise Athénaïs de Rochechouart de Mortemart, Françoise d’Aubigné, Jeanne-Antoinette Poisson, and Jeanne Bécu. Beginning in the fifteenth century, key structures converged to create a space at court for the royal mistress. The first was an idea of gender already in place: that while women were legally inferior to men, they were men’s equals in competence. Because of their legal subordinacy, queens were considered to be the safest regents for their husbands, and, subsequently, the royal mistress was the surest counterpoint to the royal favorite. Second, the Renaissance was a period during which people began to experience space as theatrical. This shift to a theatrical world opened up new ways of imagining political guile, which came to be positively associated with the royal mistress. Still, the role had to be activated by an intelligent, charismatic woman associated with a king who sought women as advisors. The fascinating particulars of each case are covered in the chapters of this book. Thoroughly researched and compellingly narrated, this important study explains why the tradition of a politically powerful royal mistress materialized at the French court, but nowhere else in Europe. It will appeal to anyone interested in the history of the French monarchy, women and royalty, and gender studies.

Queen Victoria's Mysterious Daughter

Author : Lucinda Hawksley
Publisher : Macmillan
ISBN 13 : 1466863900
Total Pages : 384 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (668 download)

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Book Synopsis Queen Victoria's Mysterious Daughter by : Lucinda Hawksley

Download or read book Queen Victoria's Mysterious Daughter written by Lucinda Hawksley and published by Macmillan. This book was released on 2015-12-08 with total page 384 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The secrets of Queen Victoria's sixth child, Princess Louise, may be destined to remain hidden forever. What was so dangerous about this artistic, tempestuous royal that her life has been documented more by rumor and gossip than hard facts? When Lucinda Hawksley started to investigate, often thwarted by inexplicable secrecy, she discovered a fascinating woman, modern before her time, whose story has been shielded for years from public view. Louise was a sculptor and painter, friend to the Pre-Raphaelites and a keen member of the Aesthetic movement. The most feisty of the Victorian princesses, she kicked against her mother's controlling nature and remained fiercely loyal to her brothers-especially the sickly Leopold and the much-maligned Bertie. She sought out other unconventional women, including Josephine Butler and George Eliot, and campaigned for education and health reform and for the rights of women. She battled with her indomitable mother for permission to practice the "masculine" art of sculpture and go to art college-and in doing so became the first British princess to attend a public school. The rumors of Louise's colorful love life persist even today, with hints of love affairs dating as far back as her teenage years, and notable scandals included entanglements with her sculpting tutor Joseph Edgar Boehm and possibly even her sister Princess Beatrice's handsome husband, Liko. True to rebellious form, she refused all royal suitors and became the first member of the royal family, since the sixteenth century, to marry a commoner. She moved with him to Canada when he was appointed Governor-General. Spirited and lively, Queen Victoria's Mysterious Daughter is richly packed with arguments, intrigues, scandals, and secrets, and is a vivid portrait of a princess desperate to escape her inheritance.

The Fight for Status and Privilege in Late Medieval and Early Modern Castile, 1465–1598

Author : Michael J. Crawford
Publisher : Penn State Press
ISBN 13 : 0271063955
Total Pages : 253 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (71 download)

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Book Synopsis The Fight for Status and Privilege in Late Medieval and Early Modern Castile, 1465–1598 by : Michael J. Crawford

Download or read book The Fight for Status and Privilege in Late Medieval and Early Modern Castile, 1465–1598 written by Michael J. Crawford and published by Penn State Press. This book was released on 2020-05-01 with total page 253 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In The Fight for Status and Privilege in Late Medieval and Early Modern Castile, 1465–1598, Michael Crawford investigates conflicts about and resistance to the status of hidalgo, conventionally understood as the lowest, most heavily populated rank in the Castilian nobility. It is generally accepted that legal privileges were based on status and class in this premodern society. Crawford presents and explains the contentious realities and limitations of such legal privileges, particularly the conventional claim of hidalgo exemption from taxation. He focuses on efforts to claim these privileges as well as opposing efforts to limit and manage them. Although historians of Spain acknowledge such conflicts, especially lawsuits associated with this status, none have focused a study on this extraordinarily widespread phenomenon. This book analyzes the inevitable contradictions inherent in negotiation for and the implementation of privilege, scrutinizing the many jurisdictions that intervened in these struggles and debates, including the crown, judiciary, city council, and financial authorities. Ultimately, this analysis imparts important insights about the nature of sixteenth-century Castilian society with wide-ranging implications about the relationship between social status and legal privileges in the early modern period as a whole.

Making Martyrs

Author : Yuliya Minkova
Publisher : Boydell & Brewer
ISBN 13 : 1580469140
Total Pages : 247 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (84 download)

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Book Synopsis Making Martyrs by : Yuliya Minkova

Download or read book Making Martyrs written by Yuliya Minkova and published by Boydell & Brewer. This book was released on 2018 with total page 247 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Examines the ideology of sacrifice in Soviet and post-Soviet culture, analyzing a range of fictional and real-life figures who became part of a pantheon of heroes primarily because of their victimhood.

The Devil's Queen

Author : Jeanne Kalogridis
Publisher : St. Martin's Press
ISBN 13 : 9781429984317
Total Pages : 480 pages
Book Rating : 4.9/5 (843 download)

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Book Synopsis The Devil's Queen by : Jeanne Kalogridis

Download or read book The Devil's Queen written by Jeanne Kalogridis and published by St. Martin's Press. This book was released on 2009-07-21 with total page 480 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From Jeanne Kalogridis, the bestselling author of I, Mona Lisa and The Borgia Bride, comes a new novel that tells the passionate story of a queen who loved not wisely . . . but all too well. Confidante of Nostradamus, scheming mother-in-law to Mary, Queen of Scots, and architect of the bloody St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre, Catherine de Medici is one of the most maligned monarchs in history. In her latest historical fiction, Jeanne Kalogridis tells Catherine's story—that of a tender young girl, destined to be a pawn in Machiavellian games. Born into one of Florence's most powerful families, Catherine was soon left a fabulously rich heiress by the early deaths of her parents. Violent conflict rent the city state and she found herself imprisoned and threatened by her family's enemies before finally being released and married off to the handsome Prince Henry of France. Overshadowed by her husband's mistress, the gorgeous, conniving Diane de Poitiers, and unable to bear children, Catherine resorted to the dark arts of sorcery to win Henry's love and enhance her fertility—for which she would pay a price. Against the lavish and decadent backdrop of the French court, and Catherine's blood-soaked visions of the future, Kalogridis reveals the great love and desire Catherine bore for her husband, Henry, and her stark determination to keep her sons on the throne.