Throughout the centuries, royal mistresses have been worshiped, feared, envied, and reviled. They set the fashions, encouraged the arts, and, in some cases, ruled nations. As she did with Sex with the Queen, Eleanor Herman takes readers into the throne rooms and bedrooms of Europe`s most powerful monarchs to relate history from the women`s point of view. She finds that in most cases, the main function of a royal mistress was not providing the king with sex as much as with companionship. "Open Sex With Kings at almost any page and you`ll find yourself immersed in a bawdy, deliciously appealing illicit scene occurring in the highest Herman has written an enlightening social history that is great fun to read."