The House of Medici
Its Rise and Fall
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The House of Medici
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Narrated by:
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Michael Page
About this listen
At its height, Renaissance Florence was a center of enormous wealth, power, and influence. A republican city-state funded by trade and banking, its often bloody political scene was dominated by rich mercantile families, the most famous of which were the Medici. This enthralling book charts the family's huge influence on the political, economic, and cultural history of Florence. Beginning in the early 1430s with the rise of the dynasty under the near-legendary Cosimo de Medici, it moves through their golden era as patrons of some of the most remarkable artists and architects of the Renaissance, to the era of the Medici Popes and Grand Dukes, Florence's slide into decay and bankruptcy, and the end, in 1737, of the Medici line.
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- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 1,206
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 1,020
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 1,009
This superbly told story brings to life one of the most remarkable rulers––and men––in all of history and conveys the drama of his life and world. The Russia of Peter's birth was very different from the Russia his energy, genius, and ruthlessness shaped. Crowned co-Tsar as a child of ten, after witnessing bloody uprisings in the streets of Moscow, he would grow up propelled by an unquenchable curiosity, everywhere looking, asking, tinkering, and learning, fired by Western ideas.
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1 out of 5 stars
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Narrater ruins everything
- By Anonymous User on 12-30-11
By: Robert K. Massie
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The White King
- Charles I, Traitor, Murderer, Martyr
- By: Leanda de Lisle
- Narrated by: Graeme Malcolm
- Length: 10 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 122
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 111
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 112
Less than 40 years after England's golden age under Elizabeth I, the country was at war with itself. Split between loyalty to the Crown or to Parliament, war raged on English soil. Its casualties were immense. At the head of the disintegrating kingdom was King Charles I. In this vivid portrait - informed by previously unseen manuscripts, including royal correspondence between the king and his queen - Leanda de Lisle depicts a man who was principled and brave but fatally blinkered.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Enlightening Stuart history
- By Adeliese Baumann on 01-25-18
By: Leanda de Lisle
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Bloody Mary
- By: Carolly Erickson
- Narrated by: Corrie James
- Length: 23 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 150
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 132
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 131
Here is the tragic, stormy life of Mary Tudor, daughter of Henry VIII and Katherine of Aragon. Her story is a chronicle of courage and faith, betrayal and treachery - set amidst the splendor, pageantry, squalor, and intrigue of 16th-century Europe. The history of Mary Tudor is an improbable blend of triumph, humiliation, heartbreak, and devotion - and Ms. Erickson recounts it all against the turbulent background of European politics, war, and religious strife of the mid-1500s.
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4 out of 5 stars
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A good history
- By Anonymous User on 05-21-15
By: Carolly Erickson
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To the Scaffold
- The Life of Marie Antoinette
- By: Carolly Erickson
- Narrated by: Davina Porter
- Length: 14 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 128
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 111
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 110
To this day Marie Antoinette remains one of history’s most misunderstood heroines. How she triumphed over the petty jealousies and backstairs rivalries of the court, how she sustained a good-hearted but malleable king, and how she was transformed from French queen to Austrian “whore,” is the story told with skill and fascinating detail.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Davina Porter is a treasure!
- By Anonymous User on 04-08-19
By: Carolly Erickson
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Tudor
- Passion. Manipulation. Murder. The Story of England's Most Notorious Royal Family
- By: Leanda de Lisle
- Narrated by: Hillary Huber
- Length: 16 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 116
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 105
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 105
The Tudors are England's most notorious royal family. But, as Leanda de Lisle's gripping new history reveals, they are a family still more extraordinary than the one we thought we knew. The Tudor canon typically starts with the Battle of Bosworth in 1485 before speeding on to Henry VIII and the Reformation. But this leaves out the family's obscure Welsh origins and the ordinary man known as Owen Tudor who would fall (literally) into a queen's lap - and later her bed.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Clear and detailed
- By Anonymous User on 04-13-16
By: Leanda de Lisle
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Empress Dowager Cixi
- The Concubine Who Launched Modern China
- By: Jung Chang
- Narrated by: Jolene Kim
- Length: 16 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 433
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 372
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 370
At the age of 16, in a nationwide selection for royal consorts, Cixi was chosen as one of the emperor's numerous concubines. When he died in 1861, their five-year-old son succeeded to the throne. Cixi at once launched a palace coup against the regents appointed by her husband and made herself the real ruler of China - behind the throne, literally, with a silk screen separating her from her officials who were all male.
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2 out of 5 stars
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An insult to audiobooks. Get a print version.
- By Anonymous User on 02-23-15
By: Jung Chang
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The Conquering Family
- By: Thomas B. Costain
- Narrated by: David Case
- Length: 13 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 218
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 156
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 149
Thomas B. Costain's four-volume history of the Plantagenets begins with The Conquering Family and the conquest of England by William the Conqueror in 1066, closing with the reign of John in 1216. The troubled period after the Norman Conquest, when the foundations of government were hammered out between monarch and people, comes to life through Costain's storytelling skill and historical imagination.
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4 out of 5 stars
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An Entrancing History of the Early Plantegenets
- By Anonymous User on 01-20-09
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Four Princes
- Henry VIII, Francis I, Charles V, Suleiman the Magnificent and the Obsessions that Forged Modern Europe
- By: John Julius Norwich
- Narrated by: Julian Elfer
- Length: 7 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 192
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 167
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 168
John Julius Norwich - whom the Wall Street Journal called "the very model of a popular historian" - has crafted a big, bold tapestry of the early 16th century, when Europe and the Middle East were overshadowed by a quartet of legendary rulers, all born within a 10-year period. Against the vibrant background of the Renaissance, these four men laid the foundations for modern Europe and the Middle East, as they collectively impacted the culture, religion, and politics of their respective domains.
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4 out of 5 stars
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For the most part, very informative.
- By Paula on 02-05-18
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A Distant Mirror
- The Calamitous Fourteenth Century
- By: Barbara W. Tuchman
- Narrated by: Wanda McCaddon
- Length: 28 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 2,366
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 1,699
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 1,712
The 14th century reflects two contradictory images: on the one hand, a glittering time of crusades and castles, cathedrals and chivalry, and the exquisitely decorated Books of Hours; and on the other, a time of ferocity and spiritual agony, a world of chaos and the plague.
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5 out of 5 stars
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And you thought the twentieth century was rough...
- By Anonymous User on 03-23-06
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Eminence
- Cardinal Richelieu and the Rise of France
- By: Jean-Vincent Blanchard
- Narrated by: Mary Kane
- Length: 9 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 51
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 44
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Story4 out of 5 stars 44
Chief minister to King Louis XIII, Cardinal Richelieu was the architect of a new France in the 17th century, and the force behind the nation's rise as a European power. Among the first statesmen to clearly understand the necessity of a balance of powers, he was one of the early realist politicians, practicing in the wake of Niccol Machiavelli. Truly larger than life, he has captured the imagination of generations, both through his own story and through his portrayal as a ruthless political mastermind in Alexandre Dumas's classic The Three Musketeers.
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2 out of 5 stars
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Great story boringly told
- By Anonymous User on 09-19-16
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Isabella of Castile
- Europe's First Great Queen
- By: Giles Tremlett
- Narrated by: Karen Cass
- Length: 19 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 79
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 75
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 75
In 1474, a 23-year-old woman ascended the throne of Castile, the largest and strongest kingdom in Spain. Ahead of her lay the considerable challenge not only of being a young female ruler in an overwhelmingly male-dominated world but also of reforming a major European kingdom that was riddled with crime, corruption, and violent political factionism. Her pivotal reign was long and transformative, uniting Spain and setting the stage for its golden era of global dominance.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Enlightening
- By Anonymous User on 03-07-17
By: Giles Tremlett
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Koh-i-Noor
- The History of the World's Most Infamous Diamond
- By: Anita Anand, William Dalrymple
- Narrated by: Leighton Pugh
- Length: 6 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 124
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 115
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 114
On 29 March 1849, the 10-year-old Maharajah of the Punjab was ushered into the magnificent Mirrored Hall at the centre of the great Fort in Lahore. There, in a public ceremony, the frightened but dignified child handed over to the British East India Company in a formal act of submission not only swathes of the richest land in India but also arguably the single most valuable object in the subcontinent: the celebrated Koh-i-Noor diamond. The Mountain of Light.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Fascinating
- By Jean on 07-08-17
By: Anita Anand, and others
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Henry VIII: King and Court
- By: Alison Weir
- Narrated by: Phyllida Nash
- Length: 25 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 471
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 422
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 418
This magnificent biography of Henry VIII is set against the cultural, social and political background of his court - the most spectacular court ever seen in England - and the splendour of his many sumptuous palaces. An entertaining narrative packed with colourful description and a wealth of anecdotal evidence, but also a comprehensive analytical study of the development of both monarch and court during a crucial period in English history.
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5 out of 5 stars
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A concise focus with tremendous detail
- By Anonymous User on 05-24-17
By: Alison Weir
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Marie Therese, Child of Terror
- The Fate of Marie Antoinette's Daughter
- By: Susan Nagel
- Narrated by: Rosalyn Landor
- Length: 18 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 221
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 182
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 181
Nagel tells a remarkable story of an astonishing woman, from her birth, to her upbringing by doting parents, through to Revolution, imprisonment, exile, Restoration, and, finally, her reincarnation as saint and matriarch.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Essential reading for students of Bourbon history
- By Adeliese Baumann on 03-07-13
By: Susan Nagel
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Elizabeth
- The Forgotten Years
- By: John Guy
- Narrated by: Alex Jennings
- Length: 17 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 74
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 67
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 67
Elizabeth was crowned at 25 after a tempestuous childhood as a bastard and an outcast, but it was only when she reached 50 and all hopes of a royal marriage were dashed that she began to wield real power in her own right. For 25 years she had struggled to assert her authority over advisers who pressed her to marry and settle the succession; now, she was determined not only to reign but also to rule.
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5 out of 5 stars
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worth the credit
- By Anonymous User on 04-19-17
By: John Guy
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1 out of 5 stars
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