Royal Paramours

"The sexuality of King Charles II is famous- his court was a byword for promiscuity in the seventeenth century; equally generous with his favours as was Edward VII, as Prince of Wales and as King, still within living memory. Less well known are King Henry I, reputedly the father of twenty bastards, and Edward IV, whom it was said no woman could resist. There was Bonnie Prince Charlie, whose violent treatment of his mistress belied his gallant image, and the future King William IV, whose income was for years supplemented by the actress with whom he lived. Royal consorts too have had their shares of amorous adventures: two of Henry VIII's wives went to the block for adultery; George I imprisoned his wife when he found out she had taken a lover; George IV's wife Caroline was publicly sued for divorce on the ground of infidelity. In the past royal marriages were made not for love but for reasons of international diplomacy, so where there was no real marital commitment, and a t a time when royal promiscuity was the accepted norm, it was no wonder that kings and queen sought love and sexual fulfillment outside marriage. There was wealth, rank, fame, and power to be won between the sheets of a royal bed. Several royal mistresses gave birth to bastards, whose fathers created them dukes and earls. Often the ladies themselves were ennobled or wrung generous pensions and fine estates from their lovers; others meddled in politics and won real power. Just as avaricious, though more reviled by contemporaries, were the lovers of homosexual kings. Few monarchs before this century were models of marital fidelity and affection, and the stories of their loves make strange reading today, accustomed as we are to the sight of domestic bliss at Buckingham Palace. Yet such tales are not repellant- who can deny the fascination of a royal love story? The bulk of modern fiction deals with irregular love-relationships of one sort or another; the course of true love, blessed by Church and convention, makes dull reading. And in the lives of the kings and queens of the past, truth is more flamboyant than any fiction. Here are stories which make paperback passion look tame in contrast. They may not edify, but they cannot fail to amuse." - Jacket.