SEX WITH KINGS
500 Years of Adultery, Power, Rivalry, and Revenge
C Eleanor Herman 2004
William Morrow - An Imprint of HarperCollings Publishers
Herman used many resources to write this beautifully eloquent book....
Pages 3-4
"The invention of the printing press triggered an explosion of literacy among the nobility. Letter writing became a favorite pastime for courtiers eager to indulge rustic relatives with juicy court gossip... From them we hear of the queens tears, the mistresses temper tantrums, and the kings' insatiable lust...'
" Madame de Maintenon, the final favorite and morganic wife of Louis XIV ( 1638-1715) write more than 90,000 letters in her lifetime. Louis' sister-in-law Elizabeth Charlotte, duchess d' Orleans, wrote 60,000 letters about her life at the court of Versailles over a fifty year period. Madam de Sevigne, who knew Louis XIV's mistresses personally wrote three times a week for twenty-five years to her beloved daughter tucked away in Provence... Some of the personal correspondence of Kings and their mistresses themselves have survived fire, floor, worms, and deliberate destruction and a portion of it deals with the romantic side of life...
"Diaries became the fashion giving eyewitness accounts of royal intrigues...'
" Memoirs became popular...'
