Cursed Queens

Eccentric, capricious, rebellious, ambitious... Beyond a world of
privilege, wealth, and power, they were all flesh-and-blood women
forced to carry the heavy burden of an empire on their shoulders.

The lives of these queens are far from a romantic fairy tale. Although countless films and novels have shown us the gentler side of their reign, they were generally very unhappy. They all share in common loneliness, displacement, nostalgia, lack of love, or suffering from not being able to provide an heir to the throne. They also share the painful loss of their children, marital failures, or feeling like foreigners in a court where they were not well received.

Theirs were not great love stories because their marriages were a "matter of state." Some, like Sissi, were empresses against their will and fell ill with melancholy; others, like Christina of Sweden, scandalized with their extravagant behavior and their longing for freedom. Marie Antoinette and Alexandra Romanov share a tragic end, while Queen Victoria of England and Eugenie de Montijo assumed their role with extraordinary dignity in the most difficult moments.

Through personal diaries and family correspondence, Cristina Morató reveals the most human and lesser-known side of queens and empresses mistreated by history, who could not choose their destiny.

Eccentric, capricious, rebellious, ambitious. Beyond a world of privilege, wealth, and power, they were all flesh-and-blood women forced to carry the heavy burden of an empire on their shoulders.