"Did you ever wish to be a princess? Have you ever wanted to wear a pretty pink gown, sing to your forest animal friends, and attend a fancy fairy-tale ball? Then meet Beatrice--she represents what being a princess in the Middle Ages was really like. Pink gown? More like itchy wool! Sing to animals? Think archery and horseback riding instead. Beatrice's life is no fairy tale, but she will show you that fact can sometimes be more fascinating than fantasy....

"John Julius Norwich--who the Wall Street Journal called "the very model of a popular historian"--has crafted a big, bold tapestry of the early sixteenth century, when Europe and the Middle East were overshadowed by a quartet of legendary rulers, all born within a ten-year period: Francis I of France, the personification of the Renaissance, who became a highly influential patron of the arts and education. Henry VIII, who was not expected to inherit...

Chronicles the sprawling saga of Empress Maria Theresa--one of the most renowned women rulers in history--and three of her extraordinary daughters, including Marie Antoinette, the doomed queen of France.