Book Review. Treasury of Royal Scandals is a national bestseller book written by Michael Farquhar

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Six Scandalous Themes

        A Treasury of Royal Scandals is a national bestseller book written by Michael Farquhar that describes “The Shocking True Stories of History’s Wickedest, Weirdest, Most Wanton Kings, Queens, Tsars, Popes, and Emperors.”  This book is a random collection of different royal families and individuals who despite their many differences, have some similarities.  However, they are often dark and negative similarities.

No matter what person, family, or civilization someone is talking about historically, six themes seem to always come up, are discussed, and are debated.  These themes include religious intolerance, disregard for the common public, dysfunctional personal lives, extreme pursuit of dynasty, a sense of superiority, and inequality towards women.  These themes have influenced the outcomes of history from past to present - and may continue to in the future.  It is within these themes that the similarities between the people and families mentioned within this book can be found.  

        Religious freedom may be something that many people in the United States take for granted today, but people who lived during Pope Gregory IX’s rule were more familiar with religious intolerance.  Pope Gregory IX had made his uncle’s persecution of heretics an official function of the church when he established the Inquisition in 1232.  During his rule, Catholics were encouraged to “squeal” on other people’s acts of heresy, children testified against their parents, and mothers testified against their children.  Anyone accused of heresy was dragged before papal inquisitors to answer charges, and once condemned, a victim was sent to be burnt at the stake.  The entire town of Champagne, France was even put on trial and burnt at the stake after the local bishop was accused of allowing heresy.  After Pope Gregory IX’s death, Pope Innocent IV came to rule and “improved” upon the inquisition methods.  He now allowed torture to be used, but only allowed a person to be tortured once.  Unfortunately for those people, however, one torture session could last several weeks.  It became obvious during the time of the inquisition, that there was no religious freedom what so ever.  

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        If there was one person whose life exemplified a disregard for the common people, that person was Gregory Rasputin.  Rasputin was a “greasy, drunken peasant, with the manners of a barnyard pig, and a staggering case of b.o. to boot, he was also king of creepy” (194).  Of course, a man who cultivates this kind of reputation for himself clearly has no concern for the opinion of others.  Rasputin’s eyes were legendary – a pale blue color with the ability to pierce and caress, while still looking naïve and cunning.  Rasputin used these eyes to dominate every person he was ...

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