Theo Aronson (1929–2003)

Theo Aronson was one of the best storytelling historians of the modern era and while The Coburgs of Belgium is not his best, and, having been published in 1967, somewhat outdated, it still paints a vivid portrait of the Belgian Royals, from their time as a minor German family to Leopold I as the founding King of the Belgians, through the unfortunate reign of perhaps one of the most evil men who lived, King Leopold II, to the Alberts, a further Leopold and even a Baudouin (I had to look that up to spell it).

The star of the book is Queen Elisabeth (King Albert I's consort), who the author seems to have a crush on. Reading about her eccentricities, I would too.… (més)

Edited to add:
I changed this review and rating on 3/27/20. While reading Crowns of Conflict by this author I came across the following quote:
'The ambitious King Leopold II of the Belgians not only acquired but personally owned the vast Congo empire.'
King Leopold II of Belgium committed mass genocide against the Congolese Peoples.
He murdered 10 million people and Hitler based his practices during The Holocaust after this monster.
If you are not familiar with him or with this horrific genocide, I suggest reading: King Leopold's Ghost: A Story of Greed, Terror, and Heroism in Colonial Africa by Adam Hochschild.
There's also a movie by that name that also deals with this.
I also encourage you to Google the photos from this genocide. They are brutal.
It is not ok to in ANYWAY refer to this behavior as 'ambitious'.
This author is a fucking Nazi and if he's not dead should be fucking shot.

Origianal review:
This is a somewhat dry and tedious study of the significant women that Edward VII had affairs with.
He burnt a good portion of his correspondence so lots of conjecture.… (més)

'The ambitious King Leopold II of the Belgians not only acquired but personally owned the vast Congo empire.'
King Leopold II of Belgium committed mass genocide against the Congolese Peoples.
He murdered 10 million people and Hitler based his practices during The Holocaust after this monster.
If you are not familiar with him or with this horrific genocide, I suggest reading: King Leopold's Ghost: A Story of Greed, Terror, and Heroism in Colonial Africa by Adam Hochschild.
There's also a movie by that name that also deals with this.
I also encourage you to Google the photos from this genocide. They are brutal.
It is not ok to in ANYWAY refer to this behavior as 'ambitious'.
This author is a fucking Nazi and if he's not dead should be fucking shot.

This book is mostly boring… (més)

Book received from NetGalley.

This book focuses on the bad blood in the interrelated monarchies of Europe prior to the First World War. I knew a bit of the issues that Russia, Britain, and Germany had with each other and what the cousins possibly thought of Wilhelm II. There wasn't much love lost among the family and I think that once Queen Victoria died, who was the Grandmother to all of them, they lost the glue that kept them from trying to conquer each others countries. I loved reading this and I did learn a few things about some of the tension that led to The Great War.… (més)