Beaumont, with a characteristic French point of view, believes in a feminine interpretation of history - which is, that all important historic events are caused by women. But unlike most Frenchmen he believed that all such events are caused by naughty women. This is a history of those women, adapted from the original French. Sample chapters: In barbarous ages woman is a divinity - Frea, the Scandinavian Venus; Swordsmen become the agents of women's sexual excesses - public defiances concerning harlots; Debauchery during the crusades - chivalry modified by oriental passions; New ways of love and dalliance - interest in salacious art.