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  1. Books
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The Royal Art of Poison : Fatal Cosmetics, Deadly Medicines and Murder Most Foul

The story of poison is the story of power....

For centuries, royal families have feared the gut-roiling, vomit-inducing agony of a little something added to their food or wine by an enemy. To avoid poison, they depended on tasters, unicorn horns and antidotes tested on condemned prisoners. Servants licked the royal family’s spoons, tried on their underpants and tested their chamber pots. Ironically, royals terrified of poison were unknowingly poisoning themselves daily with their cosmetics, medications and filthy living conditions. Women wore makeup made with lead. Physicians prescribed mercury enemas, arsenic skin cream, drinks of lead filings and potions of human fat and skull, fresh from the executioner. The Royal Art of Poison is a hugely entertaining work of popular history that traces the use of poison as a political - and cosmetic - tool in the royal courts of Western Europe from the Middle Ages to the Kremlin today.

'A macabre and entertaining romp...Herman writes vividly and with great humor, combining detailed research with easy narrative, making her book both enthralling and sinister.' The Washington Times


Author:

  • Eleanor Herman

Narrator:

  • Joan Walker

Format:

  • Audiobook

Duration:

  • 10 h 4 min

Language:

English

Categories:

  • Nonfiction
  • History

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  2. Sex With Presidents : The Ins and Outs of Love and Lust in the White House

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  5. Legacy of Kings

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  6. The Royal Art of Poison: Filthy Palaces, Fatal Cosmetics, Deadly Medicine, and Murder Most Foul

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  7. Empire of Dust

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  • 8 books

    Eleanor Herman

    Eleanor Herman is the New York Times bestselling author of Sex with Kings, Sex with the Queen, and several other works of popular history. She has hosted Lost Worlds for The History Channel, The Madness of Henry VIII for the National Geographic Channel, and is now filming her second season of America: Fact vs. Fiction for The American Heroes Channel.

    Read more

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Excellent4.3 out of 5