True, financial rewards for services rendered were of royal proportions - some royal mistresses earned up to $200 million in titles, pensions, jewels, and palaces. Wearing a mask of beaming delight over any and all discomforts, she was never to be exhausted, complaining, or grief-stricken. She was ready to converse gaily with him when she was tired, make love until all hours when she was ill, and cater to his every whim. The successful royal mistress made herself irreplaceable. And what women they were! From Madame de Pompadour, the famous mistress of Louis XV, who kept her position for nineteen years despite her frigidity, to modern-day Camilla Parker-Bowles, who usurped none other than the glamorous Diana, Princess of Wales. Forced to marry repulsive foreign princesses, kings sought solace with women of their own choice. Alive with flamboyant characters, outrageous humor, and stirring poignancy, this glittering tale of passion and politics chronicles five hundred years of scintillating women and the kings who loved them.Ĭuriously, the main function of a royal mistress was not to provide the king with sex but with companionship. Eleanor Herman's Sex with Kings takes us into the throne rooms and bedrooms of Europe's most powerful monarchs. They set the fashions, encouraged the arts, and, in some cases, ruled nations. Throughout the centuries, royal mistresses have been worshiped, feared, envied, and reviled.
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