The disturbing history of the British and European aristocracy - from Argyll to Wellington and from Byron to Tolstoy. Tales of madness, murder, misery, greed, and waste. From the Regency theaters where young nobility would go simply to insult someone and provoke a duel that could enhance their reputation, to the luxurious gambling clubs that emerged around St James' in the sixteenth century, the often absurd actions of the aristocrats. An English nobleman of the eighteenth century was expected to have what was called 'bottom,' a nautical term referring to stability. Participating in a duel was a bold statement that you had 'bottom.' William Petty, the second Earl of Shelburne, certainly had 'bottom', although not a full set of testicles after his duel with Colonel Fullarton, Member of Parliament for Plympton. Both men missed their first shot, but the colonel shot again and hit Shelborne's right testicle. Despite his injury, Shelborne fired his second shot into the air. When asked how he was, the injured earl coolly surveyed his wound and said, 'I don't think Lady Shelborne will be any worse for it.' The characters include the authoritarian, drunken, and highly explosive Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe, who is remembered today as much for his brilliant scientific career as for his ability to get involved in strange incidents, such as his death from a burst bladder. The Marquis of Queensberry, a psychopath who, on a luxurious steamship in Brazil, after a fight with another passenger over the difference between me and an ostrich, knocked him unconscious. And Thomas, the second Baron Lyttelton, a Georgian rogue right from the central stage, who owed vast sums from gambling, fought in duels, often visited brothels, and succumbed to addiction to drugs and alcohol. Often, such rogues would be swiftly sent on a Grand Tour in the hope that travel would bring maturity. They rarely did.