Description
ARISTOCRATS is an exploration, by the author of MAJESTY, THE KINGDOM and PRINCESS, of the mystique and glamour of aristocracy. Blue blood and noble birth have always cap- tured the imagination, and in this book Robert Lacey traces the modern history of aristocracy through the six great noble families who formed the subject of his BBC television series 'ARISTOCRATS:
Gerald Grosvenor, 6th Duke of Westminster, thirty-one years old, landlord of Mayfair and Belgravia, and the wealthiest man in Britain
Doรฑa Victoria Eugenia. Duchess of Medinaceli, the most titled woman in the world, and the owner of over ninety castles in Spain
Johannes von Thurn und Taxis, the German prince whose family started off as postmen, and whose Bavarian home contains more rooms than Buckingham Palace
The noble house of Frescobaldi, exiled, executed and twice bankrupted, but still living in style after 800 years in Florence at the same address
Jean Louis, Marquis de Ganay, compelled by France's wealth tax to open his chateau to the public, and carefully following
the Duke of Bedford's advice: 'Provide good loos - and plenty of them
Prince Franz Josef II of Liechtenstein, who lost twenty-two castles to the Red Army in 1945, but who has since helped his pocket-sized Principality to Europe's highest per capita income, on the basis of postage stamps, false teeth and tax evasion
ISBN:0091542901
