The book by Kondraty Birkin (P.P. Karataev), an almost forgotten Russian writer, offers readers a rare opportunity 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. Reign Henry, like the reign of the Terrible, can be divided into two eras: glory and infamy. At first, both were distinguished by excellent qualities, caring for the people, the benefits of the state and glorious military deeds. Then they seem to be reborn, and all their actions seem to tend towards washing away the first pages of their biographies with innocently shed blood, and erasing from the people’s memory all the joyful impressions of the first years of their reign with atrocities!