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

by Eleanor Herman

Overview

One of Washington Independent Review of Books' 50 Favorite Books of 2018 • A Buzzfeed Best Book of 2018

"Morbidly witty." —Marilyn Stasio, The New York Times

"A heady mix of erudite history and delicious gossip." —Aja Raden, author of Stoned

Hugely entertaining, a work of pop 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

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 mercury and lead. Men rubbed turds on their bald spots. Physicians prescribed mercury enemas, arsenic skin cream, drinks of lead filings, and potions of human fat and skull, fresh from the executioner. The most gorgeous palaces were little better than filthy latrines. Gazing at gorgeous portraits of centuries past, we don’t see what lies beneath the royal robes and the stench of unwashed bodies; the lice feasting on private parts; and worms nesting in the intestines.

In The Royal Art of Poison, Eleanor Herman combines her unique access to royal archives with cutting-edge forensic discoveries to tell the true story of Europe’s glittering palaces: one of medical bafflement, poisonous cosmetics, ever-present excrement, festering natural illness, and, sometimes, murder.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781250140869
Publisher:	St. Martin's Publishing Group
Publication date:	06/12/2018
Pages:	304
Product dimensions:	6.30(w) x 9.10(h) x 1.20(d)

About the Author

Eleanor Herman is the 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. Herman, who happily dresses in Renaissance gowns, lives with her husband, their black lab, and her four very dignified cats in McLean, VA.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments ix

Introduction xi

Part I Poison, Poison, Everywhere

1 Poison from the Banquet Table to the Royal Underpants 3

2 Unicorn Horns and Rooster Dung: Poison Detectors and Antidotes 19

3 Dying to Be Beautiful: Dangerous Cosmetics 31

4 Murderous Medicine: Mercury Enemas and Rat Turd Elixirs 43

5 Putrid Palaces: A Poisoned Environment 61

Part II The Poison Chronicles: Where Rumors of Royal Poisoning Meet Scientific Analysis

6 Henry VII of Luxembourg, Holy Roman Emperor, 1275-1313 83

7 Cangrande della Scala, Italian Warlord, 1291-1329 91

8 Agnes Sorel, Mistress of King Charles VII of France, 1422-1450 97

9 Edward VI, King of England, 1537-1553 105

10 Jeanne d'Albret, Queen of Navarre, 1528-1572 115

11 Erik XIV, King of Sweden, 1533-1577 123

12 Ivan IV, the Terrible, Czar of Russia, 1530-1584; His Mother, Elena Glinskaya, ca. 1510-1538; and His First Wife, Anastasia Romanovna, 1530-1560 129

13 Grand Duke Francesco I de Medici of Tuscany, 1541-1587, and Grand Duchess Bianca Cappello, 1548-1587 137

14 Gabrielle d'Estrées, Mistress of King Henri IV of France, 1573-1599 147

15 Tycho Brahe, Astronomer and Imperial Mathematician, 1546-1601 155

16 Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio, Artist to Italy's Elite, 1572-1610 165

17 Henry Stuart, Prince of Wales, 1594-1612 173

18 Sir Thomas Overbury, Royal Adviser at the Court of James I, 1581-1613 183

19 Princess Henrietta Stuart of England, Duchesse d'Orléans, 1644-1670 193

20 Mademoiselle de Fontanges, Mistress of Louis XIV of France, 1661-1681, and the Affair of the Poisons 203

21 Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Imperial Court Musician, 1756-1791 213

22 Napoleon Bonaparte, Emperor of France, 1769-1821 221

Part III Poison in the Modern Era

23 Scientific Advances in the Victorian Age 233

24 The Democratization of Poison 239

25 Modern Medicts: The Rebirth of Political Poison 243

The Royal Art of Living and Dying 259

Pick Your Poison 261

The Poison Hall of Fame 267

Bibliography 269

Index 279

Editorial Reviews

Herman takes a scholarly approach to her subject, but her tone is morbidly witty.

The New York Times Book Review - Marilyn Stasio

05/28/2018
History is rife with tales of poison, as Herman (Sex with Kings, Sex with Queens) shows in her rip-roaring pop history of the role poison played in the royal courts of Western Europe. She includes expected tales of nobles using poison as a means of political gain; more surprising are the great lengths that royals went through to avoid such fate. Louis XIV maintained a strict safety protocol in his dining chamber, requiring servants to test everything from toothpicks to tablecloths for any potential poisonous threat. According to Herman, Louis was not alone in his paranoia. The irony is that many nobles were unwittingly poisoning themselves with their medical treatments and beauty regimens. After a bout of smallpox in 1562, Queen Elizabeth regularly applied a concoction of “lead ore, vinegar... arsenic, hydroxide, and carbonate” to her skin in a misguided attempt to improve her complexion. In the 17th century, the gravely ill Henry, Prince of Wales, was treated with the blood of a freshly killed bird; this was a common practice at the time, according to Herman, who adds that often doctors would leave bird carcasses on the patient’s pillows for several days. By turns fascinating and stomach-churning, the book’s detailed descriptions of different types of poisons will both shock and delight history buffs and enthusiasts of the macabre. (June)

Publishers Weekly

Included in Northern Virginia Magazine's "What We're Reading This Month," June 2018

"Reads like juicy historical gossip." —Buzzfeed

"Morbidly witty... Among the chapters packed with information on the appalling health habits of past generations, my favorite is 'Putrid Palaces.'" —Marilyn Stasio, The New York Times

"[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

"Potions nerds, this one's for you. In this fresh new book, Eleanor Herman dives into the history of poison, and all the truly strange "remedies" people used to use in an attempt to prevent poisonings. Slughorn would totally approve." —Bustle

“I want to read The Royal Art of Poison, Eleanor Herman’s history of poisons. Were I to commit murder, poison would be my weapon of choice. Please note that I do not intend to murder anyone.” —A.J. Finn

"Rip-roaring pop history...By turns fascinating and stomach-churning, the book’s detailed descriptions of different types of poisons will both shock and delight history buffs and enthusiasts of the macabre." —Publishers Weekly

"A pernicious history that will make jaws drop and pages fly." —Booklist

"This book is filled with blood and guts and other unsavory things, so it’s not for the squeamish. Curious folks will love it, though, and European history lovers won’t want to pass on The Royal Art of Poison.” —Terri Schlichenmeyer, "The Bookworm Sez"

"Herman has a delightful appreciation for all things beautiful and terrible. With her dishy signature style and a dazzling command of the facts, she brews up a heady mix of erudite history and delicious gossip." —Aja Raden, New York Times bestselling author of Stoned

“Whether deliberate, accidental or the result of an antidote, the gruesome outcome of ingestion of toxins is deftly described in The Royal Art of Poison. Add political intrigue, disgusting sanitation, ubiquitous filth, horrendous medical procedures, and every sort of vermin and you get a very different picture to what we romantically assume to be the 'good old days.'” —Penny Le Couteur, author of Napoleon's Button

From the Publisher

With dramatic timing, narrator Susie Berneis enthralls and disgusts with a thorough look at how poisons were used to beautify, maim, and kill kings, queens, mistresses, and children. This audiobook recounts stories of how this was done and who did it. Berneis’s rhythm is so dramatic that listeners almost expect to hear a drumroll at the end of her delivery. Many times doctors’ treatments left patients worse off or killed them. Cosmetics, a favorite with the wealthy and the royals, were made from lead and at the very least made people ill or in the extreme killed them. Admittedly, the subject is gruesome, but Berneis’s performance savors the humor and keeps the subject from devolving into the macabre. E.E.S. © AudioFile 2018, Portland, Maine

NOVEMBER 2018 - AudioFile