Royal Murders: Hatred, Revenge, and the Seizing of Power

"Political motives dominated the royal murders of the nineteenth century, among them the assassination of Alexander II in Russia in 1881 and that of the Austrian Empress Elisabeth, stabbed by an anarchist. In 1914 it was the assassination by a Slav nationalist at Sarajevo of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, which precipitated the First World War. In the late twentieth century it is the lone madman who is most feared, the bullet from a sniper's gun."--BOOK JACKET. "There have also been monarchs who were themselves murderers. Some killed openly, others remain suspects, their alleged crimes never proved."--BOOK JACKET. "Particularly valuable for its coverage of royal families which may perhaps be less familiar - the stories from Scandinavia, Spain and some of the Eastern European dynasties - Royal Murders is a compendium of 'who-dunits', gruesome fellings, witchcraft, infanticide and assassinations that have changed the course of history."--BOOK JACKET.