The book of Kondraty Birkin (P.P. Karataev), an almost forgotten Russian writer, opens up a rare opportunity for readers to feel the atmosphere of palace secrets, intrigues and scandals of Russia, England, Italy, France and other states in the period of the 16th–18th centuries. Dominion Richelieu France was indebted to the dementia of Louis XIII; Mazarin came to rule the state thanks to the heartfelt weakness of Anne of Austria...Louis XIV would not have been a spendthrift if he had not grown up under the care of the miser Cardinal Mazarin. The whole court suffered from the latter’s stinginess - from the queen and her children to the last watchman.