The royal art of poison : filthy palaces, fatal cosmetics, deadly medicine, and murder most foul

9781250140869
1250140862

First edition

xiii, 286 pages, 16 unnumbered pages of plates : color portraits ; 25 cm

Includes bibliographical references (pages 269-277) and index

Part I. Poison, poison, everywhere. Poison from the banquet table to the royal underpants
Unicorn horns and rooster dung : poison detectors and antidotes
Dying to be beautiful : dangerous cosmetics
Murderous medicine : mercury enemas and rat turd elixirs
Putrid palaces : a poisoned environment
Part II. The poison chronicles : where rumors of royal poisoning meet scientific analysis. Henry VII of Luxembourg, Holy Roman Emperor, 1275-1313
Cangrande della Scala, Italian warlord, 1291-1329
Agnes Sorel, mistress of King Charles VII of France, 1422-1450
Edward VI, king of England, 1537-1553
Jeanne d'Albret, Queen of Navarre, 1528-1572
Eric XIV, King of Sweden, 1533-1577
Ivan IV, the Terrible, Czar of Russia, 1530-1584; his mother, Elena Glinskaya, circa 1510-1538; and his first wife, Anastasia Romanovna, 1530-1560
Grand Duke Francesco de Medici of Tuscany, 1541-1587, and Grand Duchess Bianca Cappello, 1548-1587
Gabrielle d'Estrées, mistress of King Henri IV of France, 1573-1599
Tycho Brahe, astronomer and imperial mathematician, 1546-1601
Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio, artist to Italy's elite, 1572-1610
Henry Stuart, Prince of Wales, 1594-1612
Sir Thomas Overbury, royal adviser at the court of James I, 1581-1613
Princess Henrietta Stuart of England, Duchesse d'Orléans, 1644-1670
Mademoiselle de Fontanges, mistress of Louis XIV of France, 1661-1681, and the affair of the poisons
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, imperial court musician, 1756-1791
Napoleon Bonaparte, Emperor of France, 1769-1821
Part III. Poison in the modern era. Scientific advances in the Victorian age
The democratization of poison
Modern Medicis : the rebirth of political poison
The royal art of living and dying
Pick your poison
The poison hall of fame

2017060759

2507646