The Countess Mariae Gloria [etc.] von Schonburg-Glauchau, who now goes by her married name of Princess Gloria von Thurn und Taxis, is a 22-year-old mother of two daughters who is disarmingly aware of her principal function as a wife: to produce a Thurn und Taxis male heir. (She got one on the third try, after this book was published.) One cannot become an aristocrat, she says; one can only be born one. But her family works at it. Besides being the largest landowners in Germany, they own farms in Georgia (U.S.), a big piece of the Matto Grosso, and eleven castles and palaces, among a great many other holdings. The Duke of Edinburgh, invited to a boar hunt, expressed disbelief that a private family could live so grandly without receiving (as the Windsors do) financial assistance from the state. "What do you expect?" responded Prince Johannes. "No workey, no money." Lacey gives a similarly witty, insightful, and fascinating view of the Duke of Westminster (the richest man in England), the Duchess of Medinaceli (owner of more than a hundred castles and fifty titles), Prince Franz Josef of Liechtenstein, and several more of their elite colleagues. There's also quite a lengthy bibliography but this is worth reading for the anecdotes alone.

If you are looking for a book about fairy-tale Dukes, Counts, and Princes, then Robert Lacey's "Aristocrats" in NOT for you.

Lacey profiles 6 families from England, Italy, France, Germany, Liechtenstein and Spain. He examines how these families established themselves and built their tremendous wealth. Many of the founding family members started out as soldiers, merchants, bankers and acting as advisors to Kings, Holy Roman Emperors and Popes. In short, they made themselves indispensible to very powerful people. They also made lucrative business deals, excellent marriages, had children, and continued to do so each generation. There is, however, FAR more to them than that. They are SURVIVORS. They have survived wars, political and social upheavel only to regroup and rebuild. They inherit and pass on both their wealth, philosophy, and a way of life that has lasted for centuries.

In interviewing the 6th Duke of Westminister, H.S.H. Hans-Adam of Liechtenstein, Marquis Dino Frescobaldi, The Duchess of Medinaceli, H.S.H. Johannes von Thurn und Taxis, and Jean Louis, Marquis de Ganay, we start to understand how aristocrats feel about their positions in the modern world and the reverence they have for their past. We also find out what they see as their role for the future.

Robert Lacey's style is highly informative and full of wit, which really makes this book a very enjoyable read. For those of you who are trivia buffs, this book was a companion to the BBC production in the early 80's on Aristocrats. Though 20 years have passed, this is still an excellent beginning work on a world that many know little about.

I am a newcomer to the life of this amazing English king, but this book has been truly fascinating. Well written, informative, and easy to read, I recommend Mrs. Fraser's book to anyone who wants to start learning about Henry. For an expert on the subject, this is probably too basic for you.

If you are into history and accounts of life before the Industrial Revolution then you'll find this an interesting read. This is not a novel. It is full of details of life 1000 years ago. I found it fascinating and a quick read.

First, there is much about this book to commend it. As noted above, it contains some interesting and insightful comments by Essex's contemporaries. The writing is clear and occasionally rather musical. The life of Robert, Earl of Essex and the last of Elizabeth's favorites, is described in considerable detail. The image of a man of great charm but stunningly bad judgement emerges, sometimes in spite of all this detail.

What I found off-putting was the tone of some of the writing -- a sort of headline hyperboly. And characterizations tend to become caricatures: at one point, the author evokes the image of Elizabeth's successor as "young King James cavorting with his boyfriends." The Scottish king was in his late thirties when he succeeded to the English throne -- hardly young in the Renaissance world. And the author misses a potent parallel: according to many historians, it is likely that James Stuart's physical relationships with his male favorites were not much different from those of the late queen with hers. James VI and I was undoubtedly attracted to handsome young men, and certainly carried on passionate friendships, but it is by no means certain that physical liasons developed.

Nor is this the only personal judgement offered up. Elizabeth is "nasty, vicious and self-centered." This snapshot opinion is bolstered with documented events and considerable speculation. The author repeatedly and matter-of-factly informs us of this complicated monarch's motives and feelings and thoughts. Sometimes her mood is not difficult to discern; Elizabeth had a famous temper and wasn't above shrieking at a courtier or boxing a lady's ears. These moments are described with relish, and they do indeed flesh out the author's portrait of an aging, difficult woman. The author's depiction of the internal Elizabeth, however, can be exasperating. Most jarring perhaps was the assertion that Elizabeth took up with Essex because "she had nothing to lose." This, when the cover's subtitle breathlessly promises that her "affair" with this young man "nearly dethroned her," is not only presumptous, but contradictory.

On the other hand, readers whose primary interest is political intrigue are likely find this book of value. If its goal was to show the uncertainties of fortune and the odd machinations of Elizabethan society, it succeeded admirably. There are few books available on the life of Essex, and this one is worth a look.