THE RELUCTANT EMPRESS Sisi

She prevented war and death on an immense scale, in acts that could earn the Nobel Peace Prize today. But History enshrined Sisi, Empress of Austria, as a vain beauty queen. The smear campaign was personal, not political: it started with her own tyrannical mother-in-law. Can Sisi conquer her own self-doubt, and drag draconian Austria into the modern world? Our guest is Nancy Goldstone, author of The Rebel Empresses: Elisabeth of Austria and Eugenie of …

THE BLOOD COUNTESS Elizabeth Báthory

Countess Elizabeth Báthory was a monster – a sadistic, murderous, vampire-witch who, in her castle in Hungary in the early 1600s, tortured and murdered over 600 young girls, then bathed in the blood of her victims. Or did she? Was she truly the supreme supernatural evil of 500 years of legend? Or was she an innocent victim of witch-hunt hysteria and political scheming? Or was she something else entirely? Dig into the mysteries of this …