Family secrets


Royalty in all shapes and forms
Palacio de Narros

A secret scandal : Zaraus

The seaside resort of Zaraus hardly seems the place to conjure up visions of the supernatural. Of course ghosts can settle anywhere but I hardly feared that they would be inspired by these modest, mundane seaside constructions dolefully aligned along rectilinear avenues or by the recent villas which have sprung up and that clashed with…

La princesse des Ursins

ALBERONI & THE PRINCESS DES URSINS

King Philippe V married the Princess of Savoy who made the mistake of dying. A terrible tragedy. They had indeed produced an heir, a son, but it was not therein that lay the problem: King Philippe V could not carry on without making love or he would fall ill. This uncompromising Christian would share his…

Saint-Simon portrait officiel

ALBERONI & THE DUKE OF VENDOME

It was during the Spanish War of Succession that one of Saint Simon’s masterpieces unfolded: the story of Alberoni. France was then fighting against a coalesced Europe. A French army laid siege on the city of Parma: its Duke was an ally of Louis XIV’s enemies. The Duke was a direct descendant of Pope Paul…

Charles II - king-of-spain

THE SUCCESSION OF CHARLES II

One of the chapters of the reign of Louis XIV concerns the succession of Spain. It fascinates me. It is the end of the year 1700 and we find ourselves in Madrid. King Charles II is dying. He was badly deformed, the result of so many marriages between blood relations in the family which had…

Marie Laveau

THE QUEEN OF VOODOO Part 1/3

Marie Laveau was born in 1794, baptised and registered at the parish. Her origins remain, truth be told, rather murky: in her white and black blood mixed. It was even suspected that she had Native American blood. Some even said she was the daughter of a white nobleman and a black slave. In 1819, as…

ELIZABETH BATHORY

The trial of Elizabeth Bathory took place during the reign of King Rodolph II of Hungary. The great lady was desperate about preserving her youth. Witchcraft provided her with a magic remedy, and an astonishing degree of perversion was involved in her attempts to apply it. She had a considerable number of young girls kidnapped…

THE TRAGIC CHILD (last part)

The alarm had been sounded. The guards, torches in hand, combed all the paths of the park. They found Isabellita, still unconscious, her nightclothes stained in blood. With great care, they took her back to the castle and brought her to her chamber. A few seconds later she emerged out of her unconsciousness, and was…

Isabelle de Bourbon 1741-1763

THE TRAGIC CHILD (part 2)

Her father, the Duke, made his way into the studiolo and found his daughter at her desk, busily engaged in writing a treatise. Being of a brutal and insensitive nature, as is often the case with men of little intelligence, he displayed no great tact, announcing to his daughter straight away that she had been…

THE TRAGIC CHILD

When, in 1759, the child Isabelle of Parma, known as Isabellita, reached the age of eighteen she was, without any doubt, one of the most accomplished princesses in Europe. Tall, with a beautiful figure, an oval face adorned with big, brown eyes and long black hair and snow–white skin. All the men were attracted to…

MEMOIRS OF THE BARONESS DU MONTET

A young high society woman was travelling in Austria many years ago. She had a young daughter, just two or three years old, whom she loved dearly. One evening, she arrived at an inn that was part of an old landowner’s domain. The walls were extremely thick and the doors and windows were low and…