![]() Gelardi's attention to detail and smooth narrative are not lost on the attentive reader. Below I will offer only a very brief snapshot, in hopes of luring others into reading and discovering many more details about these five women of monarchical prominence. That these cousins were both so similar and vastly different is greatly apparent in this book, which boasts an interconnected biography of each. Gelardi offers a wonderful look into the lives of Princesses Alix (Russia), Maud (Norway), Sophie (Greece), Marie (Romania), and Ena (Spain), weaving together their personal lives with some of the historical goings-on in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It came up in a piece on George III's daughters, as well as a biography of Queen Victoria (a George III granddaughter), and now with Julia Gelardi's piece on five granddaughters of Queen Victoria who rose to prominence as consorts in various kingdoms. Using never before published letters, memoirs, diplomatic documents, secondary sources, and interviews with descendents of the subjects, Julia Gelardi's Born to Rule is an astonishing and memorable work of popular history.Ī prominent sub-theme that has become apparent during this biography binge would have to be the long reach of the English monarchy around Europe. Here are the stories of Alexandra, whose faith in Rasputin and tragic end have become the stuff of legend Marie, the flamboyant and eccentric queen who battled her way through a life of intrigues and was also the mother of two Balkan queens and of the scandalous Carol II of Romania Victoria Eugenie, Spain's very English queen who, like Alexandra, introduced hemophilia into her husband's family-with devastating consequences for her marriage Maud, King Edward VII's daughter, who was independent Norway's reluctant queen and Sophie, Kaiser Wilhelm II's much maligned sister, daughter of an emperor and herself the mother of no less than three kings and a queen, who ended her days in bitter exile. Julia Gelardi's Born to Rule is the powerful epic story of five royal granddaughters of Queen Victoria, who reigned over the end of their empires, the destruction of their families, and the tumult of the twentieth century
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