Book Review: Treasury of Royal Scandals is a national bestseller book written by Michael Farquhar

A treasury of Royal S shadowerdals is a national exceedseller book written by Michael Farquhar that describes The floor True Stories of Historys Wickedest, Weirdest, Most Wanton Kings, Queens, Tsars, pontiffs, and Emperors. This book is a random collection of different royal families and individuals who despite their many a(prenominal) differences, come some similarities. However, they are often dark and negative similarities. No return what someone, family, or civilization someone is talking about historically, six themes see to always come up, are discussed, and are debated.These themes include religious intolerance, tailor for the common public, impaired per newsal lives, extreme pursuit of dynasty, a reek of superiority, and inequality towards women. These themes give birth influenced the outcomes of history from past to present and may overcompensate to in the future. It is within these themes that the similarities between the great deal and families mentioned within this book can be found. Religious freedom may be something that many great deal in the United States take for granted today, but people who lived during pontiff Gregory IXs rule were more familiar with religious intolerance. pontiff Gregory IX had made his uncles persecution of heretics an official function of the church when he established the Inquisition in 1232. During his rule, Catholics were encouraged to squeal on some other peoples acts of heresy, children testified against their parents, and mothers testified against their children. Anyone accused of heresy was dragged out front papal inquisitors to coiffe charges, and once condemned, a victim was sent to be destroy at the stake. The built-in town of Champagne, France was even so indue on trial and burnt at the stake after the local bishop was accused of allowing heresy.After Pope Gregory IXs death, Pope Innocent IV came to rule and better upon the inquisition methods. He now allowed optical aberration to be used, but lonesome(prenominal) allowed a person to be tortured once. Unfortunately for those people, however, one torture session could last several weeks. It became obvious during the time of the inquisition, that there was no religious freedom what so ever. If there was one person whose tone exemplified a disregard for the common people, that person was Gregory Rasputin.Rasputin was a greasy, drunken peasant, with the tact of a barnyard pig, and a staggering case of b. o. o boot, he was in addition king of creepy (194). Of course, a man who cultivates this kind of reputation for himself understandably has no concern for the opinion of others. Rasputins eyes were legendary a pale blue color with the ability to pierce and caress, while suave looking naive and cunning. Rasputin used these eyes to dominate every person he was talking to with not only the intensity they had, but withal the way he continually stared at people for long periods of time. Rasputin influenced and h enpecked the royal family through Alexandra, the wife of the tsar, who was blind to his inner intentions.Although Alexandra refused to see this, the people saw perfectly. The people knew that Rasputin was a fraud whose influence on family was becoming more and more widespread as time went on, and ultimately all of it would end in an uprising of some sort. Eventually, Rasputin was killed after many dramatic tries by Yusoupov (richest man in Russia and tsars nephew by marriage). It seemed that Rasputin was not ready to die, however, since he was poisoned, shot, shot twice more, beaten upon, and drowned before he was declared dead.Although many problems throughout history were between rulers and their people, some rulers also had dysfunctional personal lives. A good example of this is forty winks, who chose to disjoin his stolon wife in order to marry someone else who could mayhap give him an heir, and who was constantly fighting with his brother (Joseph). Childless, Napoleon name d his nephew heir to the throne, which revolt Joseph. Joseph had assumed that he would be heir to the throne and believed that he had the rectify to the throne as the eldest member of the family.This assumption outraged Napoleon in return, and the quarrel between the two brothers continued. Over time, Napoleons strive for power caused other arguments among his siblings, and in the end only trinity brothers (out of seven siblings) played active roles in his empires. It could probably be utter that many of the rulers throughout history had their mind on everything, but what was best for their people. on that pointfore, it is only natural that Austrian Empress Maria Theresa constantly had her mind on creating a dynasty.Maria was an especially curious monarch, who created the Chastity Commission a special department of the police charged with suppressing vice. It was verbalize that Maria even played a part in the commission, disguising herself and roaming Vienna in expect of her unfaithful husband. When she was not busy storming the bedrooms of her people, she concentrated on marrying off her children to the families that would dish strengthen her position. One episode that showed Maria Theresas priorities was one involving her son Prince Joseph.He was heir to the throne and had move in love. Unfortunately, however, Princess Isabella of Parma (his chosen one) was a lesbian and had her eyes on someone else besides Prince Joseph. Maria Theresa neer would go through tolerated a lesbian relationship, that could jeopardize the dynasty, but that all cease when Isabella suddenly died of smallpox at the age of twenty-one. Despite the Prince being devastated by his loss, Maria Theresa wasted no time and immediately remarried him to a bride, whom he dared not even touch with his finger because of her painfully ugly appearance.There were few rulers, especially monarchs, who lacked a feeling of superiority over popular men (34). Louis XIV of France definitely di d not lack this trait of monarchs. In fact, Louis XIV also felt himself to be superior to other monarchs. It was said that Louis refused to be grouped with other kings under the term Their Majesties because, he explained, from that there might be deduced an equality which does not exist (34). During Louiss seventy-two-year-reign (longest in European history), he strove to have all of the glory and prestige of France centralize on himself.Louis controlled everything from tree maintenance to how visitors should enter the garden of Versailles in a specific way to honor him. Two actions of Louiss particularly displayed his feelings of superiority. The first of these actions was when he decided to call himself the Sun king, because he wanted to be the sun and light up everything for all of France. However, it seemed that Louis wanted to light up things for himself, not France, as shown by his next action that practically put France into bankruptcy. The Sun King rebuilt and enlarged the castle at Versailles, which he had fallen in love with at a young age.Versailles became an icon that resembled the successfulness of France for the time, while it also almost drove France into bankruptcy. Perhaps it is the story of total heat viii and his wives that seems to fit into almost every theme. However, it is heat content VIIIs inequality towards women that stands out the most, as he divorced half of his wives for their ladies in waiting who were living in the same household throughout the entire divorce process. Henrys disregard for womens rights was legendary, as he married and divorced frequently in his conquest to have a son, who would become the heir to the throne.For example, Henry declared himself Supreme Head of the church in England in order to officially divorce his first wife, Catherine of Aragon, by declaring their marriage unlawful. As a result, Catherine was never given a attractive trial, and her only daughter (Mary) was declared illegitimate. Religious intolerance, disregard for the common public, dysfunctional personal lives, extreme pursuit of dynasty, a sense of superiority, and inequality towards women have all influenced history. However, although there have been many rulers involved in scandals, those rulers have also done great things.At the times of some of these scandals, the true practice was different, but civilization has progressed to an entirely different level. Even though history may repeat itself some time or some other (and has in many cases), it is some of these scandals that have brought us to where we are today. For example, it was Henry VIIIs second wife Anne Boleyn who bore Queen Elizabeth (The virginal Queen), all as a result of Henry VIIIs desire for a son and divorcing his first wife. So, encourage others to occupy up, discuss, and debate these topics, which have helped shape history, good and bad, to the point it has reached today.