Open this blood-soaked chronicle of the court, and step into the forbidden garden at the summit of European power. From the Tudor dynasty's meat grinder of political intrigue to the Bourbon ladies' poisonous afternoon tea, from Catherine's pillow diplomacy to the Habsburg family's trove of twisted genes, layer upon layer of gripping secrets peels away the gilded lies. Witness the deadly union of the guillotine and blood diamonds, decipher the three-hundred-year-old mystery of the imprisonment of Juana the Mad, and confront the eerie omens that preceded the fall of seven great dynasties. When the weight of a crown can be borne only by bending one's spine, and a sacred wedding dress is steeped in the scent of arsenic, history bares its truest fangs: the most dazzling forms of power all take root in the abyss of human nature. With cinematic storytelling, this book recreates the dark truths buried in historical records. Its scalpel-sharp prose dissects the maze of power, filling every page with the scent of blood beneath velvet and death among the roses. This is not the courtly tale you imagine. It is an anatomy lesson in power spanning a thousand years.
