“The daughter, sighing, thought: “Oh, how nice it would be to become the mistress of such a person!” - wrote the freethinker and mocker Bérenger in the poem “The Royal Favorite.” Who were they, “mistresses of such persons”? Corrupt women without honor and conscience, dipping their hands into the state treasury? Or, on the contrary, innocent victims of royal lust? Or maybe they sincerely loved their crowned “patrons”? Why guess - a fascinating book written by the French historian Claude Dufresne will help you unravel the secrets of the most outstanding mistresses.