Kings' Favourites (Classic Reprint)

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Excerpt from Kings' Favourites It would be easy to write a sentimental preface to such a book as this easy, that is, if the author happened to be a sentimentalist. And if he were a moralist, he might well write a moral preface. That would be a big matter, how ever. Apart from the little difficulty of defining good and evil, every case would have to be judged on its merits. There is no fixed ratio of king to favourite. For instance, there is a world of difference between the grasping Alice Perrers, taking advantage of an old man's dotage, pretty, frivolous Jane Shore, a ready prey to royal seduction, and Diane de Poitiers, with her affection, part maternal, part sentimental, part political, for a lover twenty years her junior. And the attitude of kings to favourites of their own sex is just as complicated and just as delicate a subject of investigation as their attitude to their mistresses. For those to whom it will give satisfaction, however, it may be pointed out that of the five frail ladies of whom this books treats, three outlived their loves and ended their days in varying degrees of misery and loneliness, and the other two died in the pains of unhallowed child-bearing, while of the men, few escaped a death of violence. But the fact of the matter is, that the author is no sentimentalist and little of a moralist. As to his merits as a historian, let the ensuing pages decide. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully, any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.