Royalty was supposed to rule by divine right and meant to preserve their bloodline, but in their zeal to do so lay the seeds of the madness and maladies that plagued many royal houses.
It’s always fun to read about mad royals. Removed by time and societal changes, they don’t feel real enough to be sorry for, and so you can fully indulge in ogling at the bizarre stories without shame. And with unlimited money and power at their disposal, there’s a lot of bizarre stories. Cummings tries to dial down the sensationalism in her book though, discussing why royals persisted in intermarrying and having children despite the (to us at least) obvious consequences of their actions.
Starting in antiquity but focusing more on families in the late medieval period onward, she discusses the stories of a number of royals who suffered from the effects of inbreeding, whether physical or mental, going in depth on families such as the Hapsburgs, the Hanovers, and the Wittelsbachs. I appreciated how she addressed the suffering royals with compassion and empathy, placing their strange-seeming actions in the context of the times.
However, I did feel that she was prone to speculation in places, for example when discussing the mental health of such royals as Cleopatra, Mary I of England, and Mary Queen of Scots – without real evidence produced to support her arguments, they felt flimsy. I enjoyed the book most where she focused on one or two figures for the length of a chapter; I wondered if I would have enjoyed the book more had the author narrowed its scope, especially if she’d jettisoned much of the less factually-supported first half.
Disclaimer: I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley. This is my honest and voluntary review.