Doomed Queens: Royal Women Who Met Bad Ends, From Cleopatra to Princess Di by Kris Waldherr
Paperback, 176 pages
Broadway
October 28, 2008
Genre: Non-Fiction
Source: Personal Collection
Illicit love, madness, betrayal--it isn’t always good to be the queen
"Marie Antoinette, Anne Boleyn, and Mary, Queen of Scots. What did they have in common? For a while they were crowned in gold, cosseted in silk, and flattered by courtiers. But in the end, they spent long nights in dark prison towers and were marched to the scaffold where they surrendered their heads to the executioner. And they are hardly alone in their undignified demises. Throughout history, royal women have had a distressing way of meeting bad ends--dying of starvation, being burned at the stake, or expiring in childbirth while trying desperately to produce an heir. They always had to be on their toes and all too often even devious plotting, miraculous pregnancies, and selling out their sisters was not enough to keep them from forcible consignment to religious orders. From Cleopatra (suicide by asp), to Princess Caroline (suspiciously poisoned on her coronation day), there’s a gory downside to being blue-blooded when you lack a Y chromosome. Kris Waldherr’s elegant little book is a chronicle of the trials and tribulations of queens across the ages, a quirky, funny, utterly macabre tribute to the dark side of female empowerment. Over the course of fifty irresistibly illustrated and too-brief lives, Doomed Queens charts centuries of regal backstabbing and intrigue. We meet well-known figures like Catherine of Aragon, whose happy marriage to Henry VIII ended prematurely when it became clear that she was a starter wife--the first of six. And we meet forgotten queens like Amalasuntha, the notoriously literate Ostrogoth princess who overreached politically and was strangled in her bath. While their ends were bleak, these queens did not die without purpose. Their unfortunate lives are colorful cautionary tales for today’s would-be power brokers--a legacy of worldly and womanly wisdom gathered one spectacular regal ruin at a time” (from Amazon.com).Kris Waldherr’s book of “royal women who met bad ends” is a witty, fun look at the downside of being a female royal. I read the whole book in one sitting. This is a nice summary book of these 50 women. There are usually 2 pages devoted to each royal woman – and accordingly you don’t get an in-depth look at their lives – but you do get to know the important backstory that lead to their death. And their deaths are really what the whole book is about anyway.
This isn’t just a book for you to read, but also to look at. There are gorgeous drawings throughout that correspond with the different women. I really loved that some of these were renditions of famous artworks but there has been something sinister added to them that foreshadows their end. It was beautiful. A word of caution – I have heard many people say that these images do not transfer to the e-book versions. So if you want to get this one, I would recommend avoiding the e-book, or you will lose half of the experience. Beyond the narrative and the images, there is a cautionary moral at the end of each story as well as quizzes at the end of each chapter.
I also appreciated that there was a wide selection of royal women included. There were the famous that everyone knows about and then there were those that most have never heard of. It was interesting to see how many of these women were connected to each other in some way – these tragedies tended to run in families.
I would recommend this book to anyone that is new to the genre for a light introduction and to those who have been reading historical for a long time for a little something different.
5 out of 5 stars.
And if you want more fun:
• Doomed Queens: Royal Playing Cards – your standard playing card deck with each card featuring a different doomed queen – with some essential facts
• Ask the Queen: Advice Card Deck – The answers to your everyday questions provided by these famous royal women
• Take the Doomed Queens Facebook Quiz
• Read an excerpt of the book
• Visit Kris Waldherr’s blog
• Watch the book teaser
Copyright © 2010 by The Maiden’s Court
As I just finished reading Child of the Northern Spring by Persia Woollsey, Guinevere is very much on my mind. Interestingly enough, I know fairly little about the famous Arthurian legend or his bride. I have never read the original legend, but this novel really has propelled me to learn more about the characters and their stories. I want to get to know Guinevere better. Movies and television shows about Arthur and his knights are numerous. I tried to choose some where Guinevere might be more prominent or show a different view. Let’s take a look – I am interested to hear if you have seen any of these and what you thought.
Mailbox Monday was created by Marcia at 
This is a short mini version of Caught on Tape – there is only one movie for this one, but I was shocked that there was even that many, so I had to include it!
I couldn’t find any clips or even screen stills for this film. Has anyone seen this film?
Choosing to read this as an audio book turned out to be a blessing and a curse. It was great because I loved hearing the accents and pronunciation of words and the reading was superb, but it was SO long (I’m pretty sure it was about 18 disks). This was one of those times that I really wished I could flip back a few chapters to reference something or reread a few pages to get back on track after taking the weekend off from reading it. I will take this into consideration when I think about reading other books by this author.
The War of the Roses – or more correctly, the Wars of the Roses is a complicated period in English history for a new to the era history lover to follow. During the period of roughly 1455 to 1485 the house dominating the throne switched back and forth and there were several battles and other events taking place as well. I’m not going to even attempt to enlighten you as to the politics of these wars as I struggle to follow them as well. I thought I would take some time today to discuss why it is called The Wars of the Roses.
Well, it looks like history after the fact is at its best again here. During the time of the Wars, this naming system was not used. At the time of the actual occurrences it was just known by the different battles between the ruling factions of the House of Plantagenet. It seems that Shakespeare may have had something to do with our modern understanding of the Wars of the Roses (he seems to poke his nose in everywhere). There is a scene in Henry VI, Part 1 that takes place in the Temple Garden. In this scene, Richard Plantagenet (Duke of York) and the Duke of Somerset have a huge argument and ask for the nobles present to select either a white or red rose to choose which side they have allegiance with. Then in the 19th century, author Sir Walter Scott used this scene in discussion the Wars of the Roses in his book Anne of Geirerstein or Maiden of the Mist. And we have a name!
