Cardinal of Spain: The life and strange career of Alberoni

This is a biography of Giulio, Cardinal Alberoni (1664-1752), the son of an Italian gardener who became absolute ruler of Spain, and who lived to receive ten votes in a conclave called to choose a successor to Pope Innocent XIII. It is a brilliantly colored, witty, and fascinating panorama of the eighteenth century in Spain and France, and presents new and living portraits of such personages and Philip V, Elisabeth Farnese, Louis XV, the diarist Saint-Simon, and hte common citizens of Italy and Spain. Intrigues, battles, passions and even cooking play a big part of the book.