Agnès Sorel: Mistress of Beauty
Agnès Sorel: Mistress of Beauty

Author: HRH Princess Michael of Kent

Publisher: Hachette UK

Published: 2014-11-06

Total Pages: 209

ISBN-13: 1472119142

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From HRH Princess Michael of Kent, bestselling author of The Queen of Four Kingdoms, comes the extraordinary second volume in the Anjou trilogy. Yolande, the Queen of Four Kingdoms is dead. Agnès Sorel, beautiful, innocent, twenty years old, had arrived a year earlier with the court of Yolande's son, René D'Anjou, and remained with his mother at her request, knowing how much the King of France, her dissolute son-in-law Charles VII, would need wise guidance. As a trusted confidant of Yolande, Agnès captivates everyone she meets, and in her role as a demoiselle to René's wife, Isabelle of Lorraine, Agnès finds herself firmly ensconced in the royal court. Soon though, whispers at court regarding Charles's burgeoning feelings for her begin to grow, and despite her best efforts to resist, Agnès is alarmed to discover that she too is in love. Plagued by guilt but unable to deny her feelings for the King, Agnès is forced to choose between her love for Charles, and her duty to herself . . . Praise for The Queen of Four Kingdoms: 'Meticulously researched and powerfully evoked.' Philippa Gregory 'Takes the reader to the heart of this glamorous, dangerous world, and holds them spellbound. I loved it.' Julian Fellowes 'Riveting . . . spellbinding.' Mail on Sunday 'A page-turning blend of epic battles, betrayal, seduction and heroism.' Hello

Agnes Sorel: Mistress of Beauty
Agnes Sorel: Mistress of Beauty

Author: Noreen Nash

Publisher:

Published: 2013-02-26

Total Pages: 496

ISBN-13: 9781482632699

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The King's eyes went to a young woman across the room. Theextraordinary face startled him. He had never seen such perfection. He couldnot believe that she was real, she must be an apparition, a figment of hisimagination, born out of his starved existence, but she was real and he knew inthat moment that she must be his.So intense would be his love for her that he showered her with jewels,gave her castles and chateaux, and then he made her official mistress, the firstofficial Mistress of France, equal to his wife the Queen. But with it came a price,jealousy -- "Jealousy which is as cruel as the grave."This is a story of love, desire, envy, and jealousy, those qualities of thehuman heart which are timeless and universal.

The Queen Of Four Kingdoms
The Queen Of Four Kingdoms

Author: HRH Princess Michael of Kent

Publisher: Constable

Published: 2013-10-17

Total Pages: 270

ISBN-13: 1472108477

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At the age of nineteen, Yolande of Aragon is sent away from her family, her friends, and everything she knows, to marry the young Duke of Anjou, King Charles VI's first cousin. Their marriage has been arranged to form an alliance between the previously warring kingdoms of Aragon and Anjou, and is politically fraught in a time of great danger and unrest. Yet the union between Yolande and Louis becomes not only a great love story, but also sets in motion events which will change the course of history. As Louis spends more and more time and money fighting in Italy for his claim to the Kingdom of Naples, Yolande is left alone with their six children to govern their lands. But through her charm, fierce intelligence and the clever use of her spies, she becomes the saviour of not just her kingdoms but also of France. Her Royal Highness Princess Michael of Kent unveils this seldom told story, enriched by her own insider's perspective of royal life. The Queen of Four Kingdoms is the epic true story of a rich and riveting period of French and English history, all witnessed by the captivating and complex heroine Yolande.

The Creation of the French Royal Mistress
The Creation of the French Royal Mistress

Author: Tracy Adams

Publisher: Penn State Press

Published: 2020-03-24

Total Pages: 144

ISBN-13: 0271086424

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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.

Born to Rule
Born to Rule

Author: Julia P. Gelardi

Publisher: Macmillan + ORM

Published: 2007-04-01

Total Pages: 506

ISBN-13: 1429904550

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Julia Gelardi's Born to Rule is an historical tour de force that weaves together the powerful and moving stories of the five royal granddaughters of Queen Victoria. These five women were all married to reigning European monarchs during the early part of the 20th century, and it was their reaction to the First World War that shaped the fate of a continent and the future of the modern world. Here are the stories of Alexandra, whose enduring love story, controversial faith in Rasputin, and tragic end have become the stuff of legend; Marie, the flamboyant and eccentric queen who battled her way through a life of intrigues and was also the mother of two Balkan queens and of the scandalous Carol II of Romania; Victoria Eugenie, Spain's very English queen who, like Alexandra, introduced hemophilia into her husband's family-with devastating consequences for her marriage; Maud, King Edward VII's daughter, who was independent Norway's reluctant queen; and Sophie, Kaiser Wilhelm II's much maligned sister, daughter of an Emperor and herself the mother of no less than three kings and a queen, who ended her days in bitter exile. Born to Rule evokes a world of luxury, wealth, and power in a bygone era, while also recounting the ordeals suffered by a unique group of royal women who at times faced poverty, exile, and death. Praised in their lifetimes for their legendary beauty, many of these women were also lauded-and reviled-for their political influence. Using never before published letters, memoirs, diplomatic documents, secondary sources, and interviews with descendents of the subjects, Julia Gelardi's Born to Rule is an astonishing and memorable work of popular history.

Winged Wheels in France
Winged Wheels in France

Author: Michael Myers Shoemaker

Publisher: Good Press

Published: 2019-12-20

Total Pages: 162

ISBN-13:

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'Winged Wheels in France' is a travelog penned by Michael Myers Shoemaker. The book lays out his experience traveling throughout Europe, most notably, to the following countries: France, Switzerland, Spain, and Germany.

The Perfect Royal Mistress
The Perfect Royal Mistress

Author: Diane Haeger

Publisher: Crown

Published: 2007-02-27

Total Pages: 418

ISBN-13: 0307383407

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Born into poverty and raised in a brothel, Nell Gwynne sells oranges in the pit at London’s King’s Theater, newly reopened after the plague and the Great Fire devastated the city. Soon, her quick sense of humor and natural charm get her noticed by those who have the means to make her life easier. But the street-smart Nell knows a woman doesn’t get ahead by selling her body. Through talent, charm, intelligence, and sheer determination—as well as a keen understanding of how the world operates—Nell works her way out of the pit and onto the stage to become the leading comedic actress of the day. Her skills and beauty quickly win the attention of all of London—eventually even catching the eye of King Charles II. Their attraction is as real as it is unlikely, and the scrappy orange girl with the pretty face and the quick wit soon finds herself plunged into the confusing and dangerous world of the court, where she learns there are few she can trust—and many whom she cannot turn her back on. From the gritty streets of seventeenth-century London, to the backstage glamour of its theaters, to the glittering court of Charles II, The Perfect Royal Mistress is a love story for the ages, the rags-to-riches tale of a truly remarkable heroine.

The Renaissance Nude
The Renaissance Nude

Author: Thomas Kren

Publisher: Getty Publications

Published: 2018-11-20

Total Pages: 436

ISBN-13: 160606584X

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A gloriously illustrated examination of the origins and development of the nude as an artistic subject in Renaissance Europe Reflecting an era when Europe looked to both the classical past and a global future, this volume explores the emergence and acceptance of the nude as an artistic subject. It engages with the numerous and complex connotations of the human body in more than 250 artworks by the greatest masters of the Renaissance. Paintings, sculptures, prints, drawings, illuminated manuscripts, and book illustrations reveal private, sometimes shocking, preoccupations as well as surprising public beliefs—the Age of Humanism from an entirely new perspective. This book presents works by Albrecht Dürer, Lucas Cranach, and Martin Schongauer in the north and Donatello, Raphael, and Giorgione in the south; it also introduces names that deserve to be known better. A publication this rich in scholarship could only be produced by a variety of expert scholars; the sixteen contributors are preeminent in their fields and wide-ranging in their knowledge and curiosity. The structure of the volume—essays alternating with shorter texts on individual artworks—permits studies both broad and granular. From the religious to the magical and the poetic to the erotic, encompassing male and female, infancy, youth, and old age, The Renaissance Nude examines in a profound way what it is to be human.