The Naked Crown: Royal Dramas, Palace Secrets and Court Scandals

The past of all dynasties is full of scandals in their rawest form: promiscuity, perversity, lust for power, decadence, theft and deceit.
For the past three hundred years, Europe has been ruled by deranged rulers. Spain and Portugal were saddled with insane monarchs; the throne of Prussia was occupied by megalomaniacs and psychopaths; England was burdened by the antics of the House of Hanover; the German and Belgian Coburgs were - like the French and Spanish Bourbons - sex-oriented maniacs; the Habsburgs had monstrous deformities from inbreeding; and Russia was for centuries under the yoke of drunken, debauched and unpredictable Tsars.
Compared to the crown-bearers of the past, today's royals are choirboys and figureheads of decency, even when they have made a mistake or are involved in scandals.
The Naked Crown is the astonishing history of European dynasties, seen differently and described differently. Boldly, without ingenious euphemisms but above all without the servility that makes most jubilant works of monarchist hack writers unenjoyable.