Product Description

Spanning more than a thousand years of European history, this work looks at the motives, means and consequences of the murders of - and sometimes by - members of Europe's ruling families. In early centuries murder was usually a "family matter", the result of warring factions fighting for real power. Richard II's throne was usurped by his cousin Henry Bolingbroke, a dramatic coup famously recreated in Shakespeare's play, as was the usurpation of Macbeth. In the sixteenth century monarchs fell victim to religious fanatics or were the subject of witchcraft - King James had a coven of witches convicted for raising storms at sea when he was on passage in 1589. In the seventeenth century "judicial murder" became part of a revolutionary process. Political motives dominated the Royal murders of the nineteenth century, among them the assassinations of Alexander II in Russia in 1881 and the Austrian Empress Elisabeth in 1898. In 1914 it was the assassination by a Slav nationalist at Sarajevo of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, which precipitated World War I. In the late twentieth century it is the lone madman who is most feared. A compendium of "who-dunnits", gruesome fellings, witchcraft, infanticide and assassinations that have changed the course of history.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1458529 in Books
• Published on: 2000-03-24
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 272 pages

Customer Reviews

excellent and entertaining
Ms Ashdown has managed to write a book that is very entertaining and at the same time provides you with a concise background explaining the reasons and reasonings behind each murder and murder attempt. In those cases where I could relate a story in this book to other books I have read on a subject, I could only admire her gift of getting to the essence of even a complex person and/or a situation in a matter of a few pages. Read Henri Troyat's "Ivan the Terrible" - also eminently readable ... - compare it to the chapter in this book and you'll see what I mean. A real pager-turner and top-notch history writing.