Mad Kings & Queens

A frank and fascinating history of forty of Europe’s most loony, deluded, and downright dangerous monarchs.

In Mad Kings & Queens co-authors Alison Rattle and Allison Vale reveal a legion of kings and queens who have abused the pedestal of power in spectacular style. The respectability of the royal position is well and truly tossed aside by the whimsy and wanton depravity of these mad European monarchs, including:The queen who murdered her husband with a red-hot spit.The bloodthirsty monarch who impaled tens of thousands of his subjects.The vampiric ruler who bathed in the blood of young women.The king of excess who beheaded his wives.

Mad Kings and Queens explores seven hundred years of royal eccentricity, detailing a catalogue of madness and exploring the finer intricacies of royal breeding that lay at its root.