Eleanor Herman

Traces the history of poison in centuries of royal courts, from the intentional poisonings to the unintentional side effects of commonly used makeup and medications.

Filthy Palaces, Fatal Cosmetics, Deadly Medicine, and Murder Most Foul

The Royal Art of Poison

Really interesting read into the history of poison within politics and medicine and how these two frequently mixed. 

Isabella Chiara Vicco 

The story of poison is the story of power... For centuries, royal families have feared the gut-roiling, vomit-inducing agony of a little something added to their food or wine by an enemy. To avoid poison, they depended on tasters, unicorn horns and antidotes tested on condemned prisoners. Servants licked the royal family’s spoons, tried on their underpants and tested their chamber pots. Ironically, royals terrified of poison were unknowingly poisoning themselves daily with their cosmetics, medications and filthy living conditions. Women wore makeup made with lead. Men rubbed feces on their bald spots. Physicians prescribed mercury enemas, arsenic skin cream, drinks of lead filings and potions of human fat and skull, fresh from the executioner. Gazing at gorgeous portraits of centuries past, we don’t see what lies beneath the royal robes and the stench of unwashed bodies; the lice feasting on private parts; and worms nesting in the intestines. The Royal Art of Poison is a hugely entertaining work of popular history that traces the use of poison as a political - and cosmetic - tool in the royal courts of Western Europe from the Middle Ages to the Kremlin today.

Fatal Cosmetics, Deadly Medicines and Murder Most Foul

C. J. Daley 

As with all books written with a singular plot, it’s filled with incessant repetition, however it’s such an interesting subject that I ended up not really minding. 

It seems incredibly well researched and obviously there’s a ton of different sources for it. 

I liked learning about all of the deaths and whether or not modern scientists can prove if they were actually poisoned.

Lacy W

A special thank you goes out to Netgalley and St Martin's Press for allowing me to read an eARC of of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own!

tw: animal cruelty

This book was absolutely disgusting and I loved every minute of it. What a weird sentence, right? The medieval times were so disgusting and deadly. I literally had no idea just how much filth and disease that floated through the castles. My desire to live in one has diminished slightly. Sure, I knew that life expectancy during that time was low but hot damn, it's amazing anybody lived at all! 

This book not only talking about different types of poisons and how royalty had a huuuuuge fear of it but how everyday objects used during that time was deadly. Make up had arsenic and mercury in it. Arsenic was used to "cure" a host of diseases along with everyday ailments. Even eating was dangerous. People would eat raw meat and unpasteurized milk. Bathing was frowned up along with handwashing and the washing of surgical utensils. The list goes on and on. 

One thing I like to point out whenever I review books like these is readability. What I mean by this is some non fiction books can be wordy and cause my eyes to glaze over, thus not retaining any of the information I just read. This happened in this book but not as frequently as one would think. I was enthralled and thoroughly disgusted for most of the book. Especially when the different cases of how some famous people died. That was my favorite part. Truly just amazing how far medical technology has come. To think, we, as humans, once lived like that. 

Also, friends, please be advised. There is slight mentions of animal cruelty. Often, when people were testing poisons, they would give them to cats and dogs to study the effects. Animals were also given the food and drink of the suspected poisoned human to test if there was actually poison in there or not. It's mentioned periodically throughout the book but it's not super graphic. Take care in your mental health if you decided to pick this book up. 

Overall, this was a great book. I took a chance on it and it paid off. St. Martin's Press has yet to steer me wrong. If you guys can handle gross detailed description of illness and death along with mentions of animal cruelty then this will be the book for you. Although, I can never look at medieval history the same way again.

I love learning about poison and I know that sounds very bad. I really enjoy learning about how people used poisons as murder weapons, medicine, and other things. I also love to see how people learned how bad the poisons are. Well, I just really love history and I really can't wait to read more from Eleanor Herman to learn more.

Elizabeth Neill

⭐⭐⭐⭐½

I love learning about poison and I know that sounds very bad. I really enjoy learning about how people used poisons as murder weapons, medicine, and other things. I also love to see how people learned how bad the poisons are. Well, I just really love history and I really can't wait to read more from Eleanor Herman to learn more.

While this is an extensively researched book and contains SO much tea about scandalous notable historical figures, it is NOT for the faint of heart. The ways these people died are described in full detail and are torturous, gruesome, and downright disgusting sometimes. So if you're someone who is triggered by that kind of thing or just puke easily, proceed with caution.

Danielle Raymond 

Rachel Benton

I would first like to thank Clare and Netgalley for letting me apart of the ” The Royal Art of Poison” blog tour. The title of this book in just a few words sets the tone perfectly about what this book is going to about. Not only do we get a good dose of history about Royals, but we also get deadly medical practices, murderous intrigues, and deadly poisons as well. think this book more than anything gave me a major wake up call. After reading this I was grateful that I lived in this time period and not back in the past. One of the things I found interesting about this book, was when Herman was talking about Castles. Unlike today, most of the palaces back then didn’t have proper sewage running through them. So most of the time courtiers would find a secluded spot and urinate and defecate in different parts of the castle (i.e. palace staircase). It was just not people, but animal feces could be seen around the castle and grounds as well. It had gotten so bad in the court of Henry VIII that he had to crack down and put up a sign banning people from urinating and defecating in the Palace and on Palace grounds. Another intriguing topic that was discussed in this book was cosmetics. Women were literally killing themselves all in the name of beauty. Well known historical figures like, Queen Elizabeth I is well known for the cosmetics she wore. After suffering a bout of smallpox, she started to apply deadly toxins to her skin in order to cover the pox marks. Some of these toxins consisted of mercury and human fat that they got from prisoner that they just executed. It was said that Elizabeth suffered from depressions and dark moods towards the end of her life. Could these toxins have contributed to her mood swings and her ultimate death? Another interesting fact is that Elizabeth I didn’t want to be embalmed, due to how the embalmers treated the body. She wanted her body to be washed, dressed, and covered with sweet smelling spices. Elizabeth really enjoyed this book. These orders were ignored because they were late in burying because they were waiting on James I. I really enjoyed this book. I thought it was very well written. I thought this book was very informative, and it made me want to study more on certain historical figures. Eleanor Herman has a way of making history fun. I was not bored at all with this story. I would highly recommend this book who is interested in royalty, history, poisons, and murder/mystery sort of thing. Please pick this book at your library or bookstores today !!!

The Royal Art of Poison Filthy Palaces, Fatal Cosmetics, Deadly Medicine, and Murder Most Foul

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