Author: Eleanor Herman
Published: April 2006
Publisher: HarperCollins
"Sex with the Queen: 900 Years of Vile Kings, Virile Lovers, and Passionate Politics," explores the love lives of Europe's queens from the Middle Ages to the Diana years. A tantalizing and scholarly read, the book provides an intriguing window into a rarely discussed aspect of historical royal life. It convincingly shows how the combination of desire, duty, power, politics, diplomacy, and social norms influenced the actions of monarchs and their consorts, many times changing the course of history. The same factors are at play in today's monarchies, which just goes to show that the more things change, the more they stay the same...
Sex with the Queen" certainly made these distant figures come to life.One eye-opening discovery was reading about the (allegedly) gay kings. Although I know that homosexuality is not a modern phenomenon, it was still interesting to read (in colorful detail) about all the guy-on-guy action going on in the kings' bedchambers.
For me, the most memorable story was that of the young Maria Luisa of Savoy. On her deathbed at twenty-six due to tuberculosis, her husband King Philip V of Spain:
"jumped in bed with her and humped her several times a day….Finally, after the priests administered last rites, and the death rattle rose in her throat, the king tried to jump in bed one last time and was only with difficulty restrained." (pp. 21-22)
I certainly had an enjoyable time devouring all the breath-taking and page-turning details. "Sex with the Queen" is a highly recommended read.
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