Legendary Favorites: The Night Queens of Europe

"Nothing can resist a beautiful woman!" the French say. And even supreme power yields to female charm. The heroines of this book—who became the greatest queens, though not officially crowned—proved it. Marquise de Pompadour and Diane de Poitiers, Anne Boleyn and Marquise de Montespan, Agnes Sorel, Madame du Barry, Virginia di Castiglione, Catherine Dolgorukaya—these great women won the hearts of crowned rulers and entered history and legend not merely as favorites, but as Europe’s “night queens.”

Contemporaries were amazed at the wealth of their outfits, jewelry, and palaces, envied their forceful character and influence over the fates of entire peoples—yet, as often happens, behind beauty, brilliance, and luxury, broken hearts and shattered destinies were hidden…