England's Mistress

Author: Kate Williams
Publisher: Ballantine Books
ISBN: 0307484297
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 450

Book Description
She was the most famous woman in England–the beautiful model for society painters Joshua Reynolds and George Romney, an icon of fashion, the wife of an ambassador, and the mistress of naval hero Horatio Nelson. But Emma Hamilton had been born to the poverty of a coal-mining town and spent her teenage years working as a prostitute. From the brothels of London to the glittering court of Naples and the pretentious country estate of the most powerful admiral in England, British debut historian Kate Williams captures the life of Emma Hamilton with all its glamour and heartbreak. In lucid, engaging prose, Williams brings to life a complex and intelligent woman. Emma is sensuous, generous, artistic, at once shamelessly seductive and recklessly ambitious. Willing to do anything for love and fame, she sets out to make herself a star–and she succeeds beyond even her wildest dreams. By the age of twenty-six, she leaves behind the precarious life of a courtesan to become Lady Hamilton, wife of Sir William Hamilton–the aging, besotted, and probably impotent British ambassador to the court of Naples. But everything changes when Lord Nelson steams into Naples harbor fresh from his triumph at the Battle of the Nile and literally falls into Emma’s adoring arms. Their all-consuming romance–conducted amid the bloody tumult of the Napoleonic Wars–makes Emma an international celebrity, especially when she returns to England pregnant with Nelson’s baby. With a novelist’s flair and an historian’s eye for detail, Williams conjures up the world that Emma Hamilton conquered by the sheer force of her charisma. All but inventing the art of publicity, Emma turned herself into a kind of flesh-and-blood goddess–celebrated by wits and artists, adored by thousands, and, for a time, very rich. Yet Emma was willing to throw it all away for the man she adored. After four years of archival research and making use of hundreds of previously undiscovered letters and documents, Kate Williams sets the record straight on one of the most fascinating and ravishing women in history. England’s Mistress captures the relentless drive, the innovative style, and the burning passion of a true heroine.

England's Mistress

Author: Kate Williams
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 456

Book Description
Sample Text

England's Mistress

Author: Kate Williams
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781408430774
Category : Ambassadors' spouses
Languages : en
Pages : 599

Book Description
The story of Emma Hamilton's rise, from prostitute to consort of the most famous man in England, has a contemporary ring of the self-made celebrity. Emma Hamilton was only twelve-years-old when she set off for London, initially as a domestic servant, before finding work as an actress's maid at Drury Lane. Within a short space of time, this indomitable young woman became the mistress of a leading aristocrat, the wife of another, the Lady Ambassadress to Naples, and the notorious lover of the most sought-after man in England, Horatio Nelson. In the days before photography, television and tabloid newspapers, Emma Hamilton would make astute use of art to promote an image of herself as an icon of fashion and beauty. The artist George Romney helped make her famous, producing hundreds of canvases devoted to the woman who was his perfect muse. However, it was her association with Nelson that brought Emma the kind of stardom we associate today with Jackie Kennedy and Marilyn Monroe. When she first met him -- the conquering hero of the Battle of the Nile -- he was a small man with only one arm, one eye and his front teeth missing. But he was to be the consuming passion of her life. "From the Hardcover edition."

Royal Mistress

Author: Anne Easter Smith
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1451648634
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 512

Book Description
From the author of A Rose for the Crown and Daughter of York comes another engrossing historical novel of the York family in the Wars of the Roses, telling the fascinating story of the rise and fall of the final and favorite mistress of Edward IV. Jane Lambert, the quick-witted and alluring daughter of a silk merchant, is twenty-two and still unmarried. When Jane’s father finally finds her a match, she’s married off to the dull, older silk merchant William Shore. Marriage doesn’t stop Jane from flirtation, however, and when the king’s chamberlain, Will Hastings, comes to her husband’s shop, Will knows King Edward will find her irresistible. Edward IV has everything: power, majestic bearing, superior military leadership, a sensual nature, and charisma. And with Jane as his mistress, he also finds true happiness. But when his hedonistic tendencies get in the way of being the strong leader England needs, his life, as well as those of Jane and Will Hastings, hangs in the balance. Jane must rely on her talents to survive as the new monarch, Richard III, bent on reforming his brother’s licentious court, ascends the throne. This dramatic tale has been an inspiration to poets and playwrights for five hundred years, and, as told through the unique perspective of a woman plucked from obscurity and thrust into a life of notoriety, Royal Mistress is sure to enthrall today’s historical fiction lovers as well.

The Tudors: The King, the Queen, and the Mistress

Author: Anne Gracie
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1416947787
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 324

Book Description
The King and Cardinal both work for papal decree of divorce while the King becomes involved with another woman.

Elizabeth Widville, Lady Grey

Author: John Ashdown-Hill
Publisher: Pen and Sword History
ISBN: 152674502X
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 291

Book Description
The author of The Mythology of the “Princes in the Tower” separates fact from fiction in this biography of an influential former queen of England. Wife to Edward IV and mother to the Princes in the Tower and later Queen Elizabeth of York, Elizabeth Widville was a central figure during the War of the Roses. Much of her life is shrouded in speculation and myth—even her name, commonly spelled “Woodville,” is a hotly contested issue. In this fascinating and insightful biography, Dr. John Ashdown-Hill sheds light on the truth of her life. Born in the turbulent fifteenth century, she was famed for her beauty and controversial second marriage to Edward IV, who she married just three years after he had displaced the Lancastrian Henry VI and claimed the English throne. As Queen Consort, Elizabeth’s rise from commoner to royalty continues to capture modern imagination. Undoubtedly, it enriched the position of her family. Her elevated position and influence invoked hostility from Richard Neville, the “Kingmaker,” which later led to open discord and rebellion. Throughout her life and even after the death of her husband, Elizabeth remained politically influential: briefly proclaiming her son King Edward V of England before he was deposed by her brother-in-law, the infamous Richard III, she would later play an important role in securing the succession of Henry Tudor in 1485 and his marriage to her daughter Elizabeth of York, thus and ending the War of the Roses. An endlessly enigmatic, historical figure, Elizabeth Widville has been obscured by dramatizations and misconceptions. In Elizabeth Widville, Lady Grey, Ashdown-Hill attempts to set the record straight.

The Case of Mistress Mary Hampson

Author: Jessica Malay
Publisher: Stanford University Press
ISBN: 0804790604
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 177

Book Description
The centerpiece of The Case of Mistress Mary Hampson is the autobiographical narrative of a 17th-century woman in an abusive and violent marriage. Composed at a time when marital disharmony was in vogue with readers and publishers, it stands out from comparable works, usually single broadsheets. In her own words, Mary recounts various dramatic and stressful episodes from her decades-long marriage to Robert Hampson and her strategies for dealing with it. The harrowing tale contains scenes of physical abuse, mob violence, abandonment, flight, and destitution. It also shows moments of personal courage and interventions on the author's behalf by friends and strangers, some of whom are subject to severe reprisals. Mary wrote her story to come to terms with her situation, to justify her actions, and to cast herself in a virtuous light. The accompanying discussion of her life, drawn from other sources, provides chilling evidence of the vulnerability of seventeenth-century women and the flawed legal mechanisms that were supposed to protect them. Readers are also invited to consider in what ways the self-portrait is accurate and what elements of it may be considered fabrication. Malay's archival efforts have thus rescued a compelling and complicated voice from the past.

His Favorite Mistress

Author: Tracy Anne Warren
Publisher: Ballantine Books
ISBN: 0345504925
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 370

Book Description
The game of love just got a little hotter. Vivacious Gabriella St. George is penniless yet proud. Thanks to the benevolence of a generous relative, she gets a chance for a new life in London, never dreaming that it will entangle her in a sensual battle of wills with an irresistible rogue who doesn’t believe in love. With one scorching caress, Anthony Black invites Gabriella to share his bed. But she wants his heart and his name, so the determined beauty embarks on a daring game of seduction to win both. Firmly committed to the pleasures of bachelorhood, Tony Black, Duke of Wyvern, has no intention of offering to any woman more than shared moments of erotic delight. But Gabriella tests his mettle, undermines his resolve, and cracks the ice around his heart with each sweet smile, teasing glance, and rapturous kiss. Suddenly a man who relishes only carnal pleasure must confront the unexpected: a passion that may lead to everlasting love.

Anne Boleyn

Author: Carolly Erickson
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 298

Book Description

England's Mistress

Author: Maureen Peters
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780709037477
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 160

Book Description