The royal art of poison: fatal cosmetics, deadly medicine, filthy palaces, and murder most foul

Introduction

Poison, poison, everywhere

Poison from the banquet table to the royal underpants

Unicorn horns and rooster dung : poison detectors and antidotes

Dying to be beautiful : dangerous cosmetics

Murderous medicine : mercury enemas and rat turd elixirs

Putrid palaces : a poisoned environment

The poison chronicles : where rumors of royal poisoning meet scientific analysis

Henry VII of Luxembourg, Holy Roman Emperor, 1275-1313

Cangrande della Scala, Italian warlord, 1291-1329

Agnes Sorel, mistress of King Charles VII of France, 1422-1450

Edward VI, king of England, 1537-1553

Jeanne d'Albret, Queen of Navarre, 1528-1572

Eric XIV, King of Sweden, 1533-1577

Ivan IV, the Terrible, Czar of Russia, 1530-1584; his mother, Elena Glinskaya, ca. 1510-1538; and his first wife, Anastasia Romanovna, 1530-1560

Grand Duke Francesco de Medici of Tuscany, 1541-1587, and Grand Duchess Bianca Cappello, 1548-1587

Gabrielle d'Estrees, mistress of King Henri IV of France, 1573-1599

Tycho Brahe, astronomer and imperial mathematician, 1546-1601

Michelangelo de Merisi, known as Caravaggio, artist to Italy's elite, 1572-1610

Henry Stuart, prince of Wales, 1594-1612

Sir Thomas Overbury, royal adviser at the court of James I, 1581-1613

Princess Henrietta Stuart of England, Duchesse d'Orleans, 1644-1670

Mademoiselle de Fontanges, mistress of Louis XIV of France, 1661-1680, and the affair of the poisons

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, imperial court musician, 1756-1791

Napoleon Bonaparte, Emperor of France, 1769-1821

Poison in the modern era

Scientific advances in the Victorian age

The democratization of poison

Modern medicis : the rebirth of political poison

Pick your poison

The poison hall of fame

Bibliography

Index.