Royalty's Strangest Tales

Royalty's Strangest Tales PDF Author: Geoff Tibballs
Publisher: Portico
ISBN: 1911042947
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 245

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Book Description
A rollicking collection of stories featuring the craziest, daftest and most outrageous monarchs the world has ever known. Packed with royal stories from 2,000 years of history, from the immortality-obsessed first Emperor of China to the master of tact and diplomacy, Prince Philip, this book will leave the reader fascinated, entertained and occasionally appalled. We’ll meet all sorts of colourful royal characters, including the Roman Emperor Caligula, who was unspeakably cruel to his subjects but worshipped his horse, Charles VI of France, convinced he was made of glass, and Frederick William I of Prussia, who recruited – and sometimes kidnapped – the tallest men in Europe to form his private army. There are tales of scandal, including secret marriages, illegitimate offspring, royal pickpockets and alleged vampirism, and madness, cross-dressing and pigeon-fancying also crop up! Fully updated with a selection of new stories, this absorbing book is the perfect gift for history fans.

Royalty's Strangest Tales

Royalty's Strangest Tales PDF Author: Geoff Tibballs
Publisher: Portico
ISBN: 1911042947
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 245

Get Book Here

Book Description
A rollicking collection of stories featuring the craziest, daftest and most outrageous monarchs the world has ever known. Packed with royal stories from 2,000 years of history, from the immortality-obsessed first Emperor of China to the master of tact and diplomacy, Prince Philip, this book will leave the reader fascinated, entertained and occasionally appalled. We’ll meet all sorts of colourful royal characters, including the Roman Emperor Caligula, who was unspeakably cruel to his subjects but worshipped his horse, Charles VI of France, convinced he was made of glass, and Frederick William I of Prussia, who recruited – and sometimes kidnapped – the tallest men in Europe to form his private army. There are tales of scandal, including secret marriages, illegitimate offspring, royal pickpockets and alleged vampirism, and madness, cross-dressing and pigeon-fancying also crop up! Fully updated with a selection of new stories, this absorbing book is the perfect gift for history fans.

Royalty's Strangest Characters

Royalty's Strangest Characters PDF Author: Geoff Tibballs
Publisher: Robson
ISBN: 9781861058270
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 292

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Book Description
Recounting over 2,000 years of daft despots, raving rulers and potty potentates, this unique look at the world’s craziest kings and queens will leave you shocked, amazed – and often in fits of laughter. From the madness of ancient Rome, exemplified by the Emperor Caligula who wanted to appoint his horse to the consulate, we go on to meet Charles VI of France, convinced he was made of glass, Queen Juana of Spain, never separated from her late husband’s coffin, and King Otto of Bavaria, who tried to ward off hereditary insanity by shooting a peasant a day. Throughout history, royalty and scandal have gone hand-in-hand like a Prince of Wales and his mistress – witness the pocket-picking Farouk I of Egypt, Augustus II of Poland, who fathered an estimated 355 children, only one of whom was legitimate, and, more recently, Britain’s master of tact and diplomacy, Prince Philip. From kleptomania and incest to transvestism and even pigeon fancying, all these and many more colourful characters can be found in this revealing trawl of the world’s royal families.

Royalty's Strangest Characters

Royalty's Strangest Characters PDF Author: Geoff Tibballs
Publisher: Batsford
ISBN: 1849941807
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 277

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Book Description
Recounting over 2,000 years of daft despots, raving rulers and potty potentates, this unique look at the world’s craziest kings and queens will leave you shocked, amazed – and often in fits of laughter. From the madness of ancient Rome, exemplified by the Emperor Caligula who wanted to appoint his horse to the consulate, we go on to meet Charles VI of France, convinced he was made of glass, Queen Juana of Spain, never separated from her late husband’s coffin, and King Otto of Bavaria, who tried to ward off hereditary insanity by shooting a peasant a day. Throughout history, royalty and scandal have gone hand-in-hand like a Prince of Wales and his mistress – witness the pocket-picking Farouk I of Egypt, Augustus II of Poland, who fathered an estimated 355 children, only one of whom was legitimate, and, more recently, Britain’s master of tact and diplomacy, Prince Philip. From kleptomania and incest to transvestism and even pigeon fancying, all these and many more colourful characters can be found in this revealing trawl of the world’s royal families.

Kent's Strangest Tales

Kent's Strangest Tales PDF Author: Martin Latham
Publisher: Portico
ISBN: 1911042580
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 274

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Book Description
Kent’s Strangest Tales is a book devoted to the weird and wonderful side of the Garden of England. Home to historically rich towns such as Canterbury, Margate and Ramsgate, Kent is a county with more strangeness than you can shake a strange-shaped stick at. From Chaucer’s legendary tales of debauchery and naughtiness to Mick and Keef’s very first meeting on a rocking ’n’ rolling Dartford train, Kent has it all – coast, ghosts, castles, treasures, pirates, Britain’s oldest highway and, lest we forget, the old lady who tricked the Luftwaffe. All the stories in this book are bizarre, fascinating, hilarious, and, most importantly, true. Perfect for Kent-dwellers and tourists alike, Kent’s Strangest Tales is a treasure trove of the hilarious, the odd and the baffling – an alternative travel guide to some of the county’s best-kept secrets that date back many thousands of years. Read on, if you dare! Word count: 45,000

A Treasury of Royal Scandals

A Treasury of Royal Scandals PDF Author: Michael Farquhar
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 9780140280241
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 356

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Book Description
From Nero's nagging mother (whom he found especially annoying after taking her as his lover) to Catherine's stable of studs (not of the equine variety), here is a wickedly delightful look at the most scandalous royal doings you never learned about in history class. Gleeful, naughty, sometimes perverted-like so many of the crowned heads themselves-A Treasury of Royal Scandals presents the best (the worst?) of royal misbehavior through the ages. From ancient Rome to Edwardian England, from the lavish rooms of Versailles to the dankest corners of the Bastille, the great royals of Europe have excelled at savage parenting, deadly rivalry, pathological lust, and meeting death with the utmost indignity-or just very bad luck.

Fishing's Strangest Days

Fishing's Strangest Days PDF Author: Tom Quinn
Publisher: Batsford
ISBN: 1849941750
Category : Humor
Languages : en
Pages : 238

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Book Description
Fishing's Strangest Tales gathers together choice stories and bizarre fishing tales from all over the world. Consider the Oxford scientist who in 1910 discovered the marvellous life-giving properties of brandy to fish who had otherwise gasped their last. Or how about the nine-year-old boy fishing for trout who caught a large mussel – containing no less than forty pearls – and managed to earn more in one day than his father, a farm worker, had earned in the last five years. Fishing's Strangest Days is full of fascinating tales that may sound fishy and unbelievable but will have have you caught hook, line and sinker.

London's Strangest: The Thames

London's Strangest: The Thames PDF Author: Iain Spragg
Publisher: Portico
ISBN: 1910232408
Category : Humor
Languages : en
Pages : 135

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Book Description
The 19th-century MP John Burns described the Thames as 'liquid history' and ever since the Romans founded Londinium in 43 AD, the river has played a key cultural and economic, political and social role in the history of England. London's Strangest: The Thames reveals the bizarre, funny and surreal events and episodes that have occurred over the centuries on, beneath and along the banks of the famous waterway. From appearances of the world's first submarine to the raid on the Sex Pistols river concert, Lord Nelson's final journey to John Prescott's watery protest, and even the recent escapades during the floods, the River Thames really has witnessed it all.

Sailing's Strangest Moments

Sailing's Strangest Moments PDF Author: John Harding
Publisher: Portico
ISBN: 1849941785
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 244

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Book Description
This fascinating collection of entertaining stories from the seven seas reveals unusual and bizarre sailing trips, vessels and characters, and recounts perilous journeys in freak weather, meetings with pirates and sea monsters, and other legendary tales.

Dublin's Strangest Tales

Dublin's Strangest Tales PDF Author: Michael Barry
Publisher: Portico
ISBN: 1909396443
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 162

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Book Description
Welcome to the weird and wonderful world of Dublin. Though this isn’t the usual side of the city the tourists, travellers and residents see. This is the real Dublin, the strange and twisted nooks and crannies of the city’s bizarre history – past, present and future. Following on from the bestselling Portico Strangest titles now comes a book devoted to one of Ireland’s most beautiful, and popular, cities. Located on the beautiful eastern seaboard, Dublin is a city with more strangeness than you can shake a pint of Guinness at. Home to one million people, the name, strangely, comes from the Irish ‘Dubh Linn’, which means 'Black Pool', but that name was already taken. Dublin’s Strangest Tales is a treasure trove of the hilarious, the odd and the baffling – an alternative travel guide to some of the city’s best-kept secrets. Read on, if you dare! You have been warned.

Shakespeare's Strangest Tales

Shakespeare's Strangest Tales PDF Author: Iain Spragg
Publisher: Portico
ISBN: 1911042394
Category : Drama
Languages : en
Pages : 301

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Book Description
A fascinating playbill of stories from the weird and wonderful world of Shakespearean theatre through the centuries, including distinguished actors falling off stages, fluffed lines, performances in the dark, and why you must never, ever say the name of that Scottish play, especially if you are Peter O'Toole. Discover a wealth of Shakespearean shenanigans over the years, including the terrible behaviour of the groundlings at Shakespeare's Globe, how the 'rude mechanicals' in A Midsummer Night's Dream got recast as a bunch of ladies from the WI, and how Dame Maggie Smith got even with Sir Laurence Olivier. Published to coincide with the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death, this treasury of curious tales is a must-read for all Shakespeare lovers and theatre fans. Word count: 45,000