Have you traced your family tree back to European royalty? There’s nothing unusual in that accomplishment; millions of present-day Americans and others can find documented proof of royalty in their ancestry. However, before bragging about these "high class" ancestors, you might want to check out a new book written by Karl Shaw.

Royal Babylon: The Alarming History of European Royalty. (Broadway Books, pp 325, $12.95) is a catalog of insanity, congenital malformations, and debauchery in the royal houses of Europe. The author painstakingly lists all the emperors, kings, queens, princes, and various other rulers of Europe from Peter the Great to Queen Victoria, from mad Ludwig to George III, describing in detail their real, documented or alleged illnesses and vices.

This is not a pleasant book. It describes physical and mental problems in rather nauseating terms. According to the author, not one of Europe's royal families was spared. Apparently they were all plagued by syphilis, insanity in one form or another, sadism, alcoholism, or just plain ugliness and stupidity, mostly due to inbreeding to keep the royal lines "pure." It even describes the pickled head of Czarina Catherine's former lover that she kept by her bedside.

Present-day royalty is not spared in this new book. It claims that Prince Ernst of Hanover, husband of Princess Caroline of Monacoand a distant cousin of Queen Elizabeth II, has been accused of urinating in public—on the Turkish pavilion at a German trade fair, no less. Caroline's sister, Stephanie, is reported to now be living with her best friend's husband, a circus elephant trainer.