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Royalty's Strangest Characters (Strangest Series) by Tibballs, Geoff (2005) Paperback
Just as the monarchy has been hereditary in many countries, so insanity has been hereditary in many monarchs. Here are 2,000 years of crazy kings and potty potentates, including such infamous characters as Caligula and Vlad the Impaler.
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First published March 1, 2005
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Displaying 1 - 24 of 24 reviews
February 3, 2019
An entertaining look at the eccentric, tempermental and all over crazy rulers throughout history. From famous baddies like Caligula and Ivan the Terrible to eccentrics like King George. Elizabeth Bathory even made the list! It was chock full of puns and one-liners!!
December 17, 2008
This book had a lot of fun, interesting historical stories to read. It's amazing how many lunatic leaders are or were out there (though I guess not really...) The book goes in chronological order up to present day, providing stories from around the globe. Loved it!
November 14, 2017
What a carry on! No pun intended!
What a collection! the funniest I've read so far!
Some of the people mentioned I'd never heard of or would want to! What a pack of idiots & despots
from history! Good all round book hope there's more to come!
What a collection! the funniest I've read so far!
Some of the people mentioned I'd never heard of or would want to! What a pack of idiots & despots
from history! Good all round book hope there's more to come!
March 20, 2021
I enjoyed this book. It’s bite sized snippets of royal characters throughout history that are sometimes sad and sometimes laughable. It provides an interesting look at some people and eras you may not have heard of before.
did-not-finish
December 11, 2017About 25% through. Not entirely accurate, misleading, and too much effort to be funny without actually being funny.
November 18, 2008
A quick, interesting read.
Not for those interested in truly learning history, as no references are given. This book reads almost like a tabloid newspaper. Interesting and fun, but not reliable in the least.
Also frustrating were some of the unnecessary comments the author added in a failed attempt at humor.
Although poorly written and lacking editing, this book was the perfect book to read while spending a sick day at home. Not much concentration was needed, each story was relatively short, and the content was very interesting.
Not for those interested in truly learning history, as no references are given. This book reads almost like a tabloid newspaper. Interesting and fun, but not reliable in the least.
Also frustrating were some of the unnecessary comments the author added in a failed attempt at humor.
Although poorly written and lacking editing, this book was the perfect book to read while spending a sick day at home. Not much concentration was needed, each story was relatively short, and the content was very interesting.
December 9, 2012
Short vignettes exposing the eccentricities and madness of various rulers throughout history.
I was familiar with some of these rulers, but others were new to me. I really enjoyed the book, and found myself reading through the stories quickly. The only thing I didn't quite like was the sometimes odd comparisons to modern concepts, which felt out of place within the book.
I was familiar with some of these rulers, but others were new to me. I really enjoyed the book, and found myself reading through the stories quickly. The only thing I didn't quite like was the sometimes odd comparisons to modern concepts, which felt out of place within the book.
November 9, 2014
I stopped reading this about 1/3 of the way through just because while the title says "strangest," it really means "cruelest" (and I don't particularly enjoy reading about torture in graphic detail.) One thing's for sure, it's an answer to people who say our world NOW is a mess!
November 4, 2021
They are Belive-it-Or Not sorts of daft monarchs, terrible rulers, and sadistic powers-that-be in the history of human civilizations who left me stunned in the abeyance of reason. Their entitled strangeness swiveled my head in wonderment at the stupendousness of freakiness. Ironically, this anecdotal recounting of the cruel-to-be kind potentates reminds me of a tenet of Logotherapy, which explains that a healthy dose of suspense in life helps us escape boredom, resulting in excessive indulgence in perverted pleasure-seeking.
This book tells of the infamous kings and queens and some aristocrats. They are famous and lesser-known, interestingly mainly from Russia and Eastern Europe, which gives a somber ambiance to the tales of weirds born with silver spoons in their mouths. The most memorably horrible and ignoble characters that left indelible marks on my consciousness are as follows:
1. Elizabeth Bethany: This diabolically perverted Hungarian countess whose uncle was a king of Poland had a fixation on blood and pain in devotion to youth and beauty. Some say she was trained to be cruel, but I think it has to do with her connatural inclination for cruelty passed down in her lineage. Her aunt was a Satan-worshipping noblewoman who sought erotic pleasure in young girls, which Elizabeth also learned and practiced in her castle. She had her trusty three maids lured beautiful young girls, usually from poor families, under the pretext of training them for top-rated maids-in-waiting with generous munificence to the families. What happened next was all over but the shouting. Bethany tortured the girls in unthinkably cruel ways and bathed in their blood because she believed doing it would restore youth and beauty. She deserves no revisionist or appeals on the crime against the girls under her care. Nevertheless, modern-day feminists and the radical leftists are moved to portray her as a wrongfully accused Calvinist woman in a time when sectarian religious rivalry and antipathy were rampant. Her being charged by a Lutheran minister in the town does not ipso facto constitute Lutheran machination of destroying the Calvinist influence in the region. If the minister conspired to concoct any such plot, he would have targeted a man, not a woman whose social status was not entirely regarded as equally significant as a man even in high birth.
2. Vlad the Lad, aka the Impaler, aka Dracula: The proverbial bloodsucker ruler had a penchant for impaling men, women, and children for leisure and punishment. The point was to give them slow deaths to heighten the apex of pain till the last breath. The legend of Count Dracula is loosely based on this Romanian ruler who might have inspired an idea of shashlik, kebab. Or any skewed food. Thanks to the detailed accounts of how Vlad artistically mastered impaling, I swore off any such impaled food lest it should conjure up the vista of the impaled helpless.
3. Frederick I of Prussia: A stout and short, the king's obsession with men in great height was his actualization of ideation. He had the tallest men in all the regions of Europe, especially from the North, to establish the royal military version of a freak company called "The Potsdam Giants." The recruits, or in many cases, abductees, were consisted of a former woodsman, laborers, and farmers, allured by abundant compensations promising dazzling delights of secured lives. Yet it was an empty promise, beguiling the simple-minded low-class foreigners, who were subjected to mistreatments and even punishments should they attempt to escape. The king's pastime was to call upon the guards at any time anywhere, including in his chamber at night, and watch them in full uniform, admiring their impossibly imposing physique that he coveted but could never have. Thank God that his son Frederick the Great disbanded the freakish guards no sooner than had he succeeded his father upon his death.
I wonder if these royal characters were inherently supra-human without a streak of humanity because of the dreadfulness of the deeds that would not have been born of a normal human being. Maybe it's in-breeding abnormalities, which were usually customary in European dynasties to preserve their noble royal lineage. It also testifies that keeping means in one's life is a blessing because extreme wealth and poverty lead a soul astray due to listlessness and exasperation, resulting in amoral walking dead subsisting on the pain of the others. Robinson Crusoe's sagacious father was right in saying that the best is the upper station of low life. Mel Brooks once uttered, "It's good to be a king." Unfortunately, it only applies to these afore-described weird and evil characters. A good king or queen doesn't.
This book tells of the infamous kings and queens and some aristocrats. They are famous and lesser-known, interestingly mainly from Russia and Eastern Europe, which gives a somber ambiance to the tales of weirds born with silver spoons in their mouths. The most memorably horrible and ignoble characters that left indelible marks on my consciousness are as follows:
1. Elizabeth Bethany: This diabolically perverted Hungarian countess whose uncle was a king of Poland had a fixation on blood and pain in devotion to youth and beauty. Some say she was trained to be cruel, but I think it has to do with her connatural inclination for cruelty passed down in her lineage. Her aunt was a Satan-worshipping noblewoman who sought erotic pleasure in young girls, which Elizabeth also learned and practiced in her castle. She had her trusty three maids lured beautiful young girls, usually from poor families, under the pretext of training them for top-rated maids-in-waiting with generous munificence to the families. What happened next was all over but the shouting. Bethany tortured the girls in unthinkably cruel ways and bathed in their blood because she believed doing it would restore youth and beauty. She deserves no revisionist or appeals on the crime against the girls under her care. Nevertheless, modern-day feminists and the radical leftists are moved to portray her as a wrongfully accused Calvinist woman in a time when sectarian religious rivalry and antipathy were rampant. Her being charged by a Lutheran minister in the town does not ipso facto constitute Lutheran machination of destroying the Calvinist influence in the region. If the minister conspired to concoct any such plot, he would have targeted a man, not a woman whose social status was not entirely regarded as equally significant as a man even in high birth.
2. Vlad the Lad, aka the Impaler, aka Dracula: The proverbial bloodsucker ruler had a penchant for impaling men, women, and children for leisure and punishment. The point was to give them slow deaths to heighten the apex of pain till the last breath. The legend of Count Dracula is loosely based on this Romanian ruler who might have inspired an idea of shashlik, kebab. Or any skewed food. Thanks to the detailed accounts of how Vlad artistically mastered impaling, I swore off any such impaled food lest it should conjure up the vista of the impaled helpless.
3. Frederick I of Prussia: A stout and short, the king's obsession with men in great height was his actualization of ideation. He had the tallest men in all the regions of Europe, especially from the North, to establish the royal military version of a freak company called "The Potsdam Giants." The recruits, or in many cases, abductees, were consisted of a former woodsman, laborers, and farmers, allured by abundant compensations promising dazzling delights of secured lives. Yet it was an empty promise, beguiling the simple-minded low-class foreigners, who were subjected to mistreatments and even punishments should they attempt to escape. The king's pastime was to call upon the guards at any time anywhere, including in his chamber at night, and watch them in full uniform, admiring their impossibly imposing physique that he coveted but could never have. Thank God that his son Frederick the Great disbanded the freakish guards no sooner than had he succeeded his father upon his death.
I wonder if these royal characters were inherently supra-human without a streak of humanity because of the dreadfulness of the deeds that would not have been born of a normal human being. Maybe it's in-breeding abnormalities, which were usually customary in European dynasties to preserve their noble royal lineage. It also testifies that keeping means in one's life is a blessing because extreme wealth and poverty lead a soul astray due to listlessness and exasperation, resulting in amoral walking dead subsisting on the pain of the others. Robinson Crusoe's sagacious father was right in saying that the best is the upper station of low life. Mel Brooks once uttered, "It's good to be a king." Unfortunately, it only applies to these afore-described weird and evil characters. A good king or queen doesn't.
April 7, 2018
A quick, fun read. Horrible Histories for adults, it mixes the notorious (the nastier Roman Emperors) with lesser known but equally eccentric figures from world history. If you're squeamish, it's probably best to avoid, since many of these characters dabbled in sadism and outright murder. It was like spending a few evenings in the company of a particularly scurrilous gossip columnist (I've always pictured Suetonius as Frankie Howerd in Up Pompeii for some reason!) Other reviewers have complained about the arch tone, but I for one felt it was just right.
I will definitely be checking out the other books in the series.
I will definitely be checking out the other books in the series.
July 26, 2018
Indeed, what a strange collection of characters. Reading this book made me strangely optimistic about the current world - when you see the utter insanity and total power of past rulers, you can cheerfully look forward to the next elections, and not expect to be shot by the king just because you’re walking down the street! (Hopefully). Anyhoo, an interesting transversal view of history...!
November 6, 2018
3.5
Full of misspellings and repetition, but I did enjoy this book. My favorite was Norton I, Emperor of the United States. I preferred the silly lovable characters to the sexually depraved or evil ones.
Full of misspellings and repetition, but I did enjoy this book. My favorite was Norton I, Emperor of the United States. I preferred the silly lovable characters to the sexually depraved or evil ones.
May 17, 2020
It reads like a tabloid magazine. However it is highly entertaining!
January 6, 2021
Not half as fun and good as Royal Babylon. 2.5 stars
July 9, 2019
Entertaining
The stories are short but entertaining. Some the of stories have been covered in other books that are written along the same lines as this one. There were a couple stories that I have never read about , one being the last person in this book. If you are looking for a serious history book, keep going. If you are looking for some light hearted reading, with history thrown in, then this book covers it
The stories are short but entertaining. Some the of stories have been covered in other books that are written along the same lines as this one. There were a couple stories that I have never read about , one being the last person in this book. If you are looking for a serious history book, keep going. If you are looking for some light hearted reading, with history thrown in, then this book covers it
August 20, 2012
When I read the description of this on Amazon, I thought it sounded like it would be an interesting read. Now that I've finished it, I can say that I found it gossipy, and I really don't know whether to believe some of the claims in it. Anyway, an entertaining read, but not something I would take into a history class.
June 20, 2017
I loved this book!
The author relays history as though telling a story, which is the only real way I can read history books without getting bored.
There were points when I had to take a break but that happens with all books that are essentially huge info-dumps.
The author relays history as though telling a story, which is the only real way I can read history books without getting bored.
There were points when I had to take a break but that happens with all books that are essentially huge info-dumps.
May 6, 2016
ممل في أغلبه، وذلك يعود لطريقة سرد صاحب الكتاب. رغم ما تحتويه سيرة هؤلاء الملوك، والأمراء، من تفاصيل مدهشة، إلا أنها مرت عليّ بشكل عادي. باستثناء ثلاث منهم أو أربع.. لا تجازفوا باقتنائه، عوضًا عن ذلك أجد من الأفضل قراءة سيرهم على حدة
January 17, 2019
This is my guilty pleasures book. A tabloid about dead people so no one gets hurt. Also all about true things and not just needing a deadline.
March 7, 2015
Very interesting.
August 18, 2015
I remember reading this in my junior high years and I instantly love it. The dark tales tends to attract me more.
October 15, 2020
A Good Chuckle
It is a good book. Not the best one I have ever read on the crazy royals, but entertaining nonetheless.
It is a good book. Not the best one I have ever read on the crazy royals, but entertaining nonetheless.
May 29, 2014
Interesting read on the lives of monarchs from caligula to Prince Phillip.
May 2, 2017
Alright, let's go straight to the point. I will start with the aspects of the book I found to be lacking and not amusing,
* There were a lot of grammatical errors (this usually has the power to be annoying).
*After the first couple of stories and characters, the rest just felt repetitive and lacked a sense of originality.
*Due to the last two observations, the credibility of the book began to fade. At one point I asked myself, is this even real? should I read this as just a fiction piece?
Now, you are probably asking yourself, (well maybe you are not, I am not a psychic unfortunately) why on earth would you give this book a 4 STAR RATING???
No worries, I will explain in a very simple manner. The answer is because it was super entertaining! Yes I was not content with a lot of things but I read about some characters' odd behaviors and that was enough for me to get hooked on the damn thing. Call them eccentrics or plain ol' mad but the author did know how to arrange a group of the most interesting and bizarre monarchs history has seen.
After you read this book and if someday you happen to read this review, you might think this review resembles Farouk I with all of its contradictions right? :)
* There were a lot of grammatical errors (this usually has the power to be annoying).
*After the first couple of stories and characters, the rest just felt repetitive and lacked a sense of originality.
*Due to the last two observations, the credibility of the book began to fade. At one point I asked myself, is this even real? should I read this as just a fiction piece?
Now, you are probably asking yourself, (well maybe you are not, I am not a psychic unfortunately) why on earth would you give this book a 4 STAR RATING???
No worries, I will explain in a very simple manner. The answer is because it was super entertaining! Yes I was not content with a lot of things but I read about some characters' odd behaviors and that was enough for me to get hooked on the damn thing. Call them eccentrics or plain ol' mad but the author did know how to arrange a group of the most interesting and bizarre monarchs history has seen.
After you read this book and if someday you happen to read this review, you might think this review resembles Farouk I with all of its contradictions right? :)
Displaying 1 - 24 of 24 reviews