[PDF] Ladies Of The Bedchamber eBook

Author : Dennis Friedman
Publisher : Peter Owen Publishers
Page : 232 pages
File Size : 32,56 MB
Release : 2003
Category : Biography & Autobiography
ISBN :

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This text examines the role played by the mistress, the concubine and finally commercial sex, the ready availability of which possibly protected the virginal sanctity of marriage in the years preceding today's less holy alliances.

Author : Anna Whitelock
Publisher : Macmillan
Page : 481 pages
File Size : 39,53 MB
Release : 2014-02-11
Category : Biography & Autobiography
ISBN : 0374239789

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"Originally published in 2013 by Bloomsbury Publishing, Great Britain, as Elizabeth's Bedfellows: An Intimate History of the Queen's Court"--T.p. verso.

Author : Mrs. A. Crawford
Publisher : Forgotten Books
Page : 306 pages
File Size : 46,90 MB
Release : 2018-01-04
Category :
ISBN : 9780428306250

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Excerpt from The Lady of the Bedchamber, Vol. 1 of 2: A Novel After many other victories, so easily achieved that this campaign seemed almost an excursion of pleasure, Louis returned triumphantly to Paris. His first care was now to make in quiries about the daughter of the Chevalier de Valcour, and finding that she was in the Con vent of St. Agnes, situated in one of the valleys at the foot of Pyrenees, he determined to place her immediately among the maids of honour attendant on the Queen, and despatched forthwith a gouvernante, and an armed tr00p to escort her to Paris. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

Author : Anna Whitelock
Publisher : A&C Black
Page : 669 pages
File Size : 37,21 MB
Release : 2013-05-23
Category : History
ISBN : 1408833638

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Elizabeth I acceded to the throne in 1558, restoring the Protestant faith to England. At the heart of the new queen's court lay Elizabeth's bedchamber, closely guarded by the favoured women who helped her dress, looked after her jewels and shared her bed. Elizabeth's private life was of public, political concern. Her bedfellows were witnesses to the face and body beneath the make-up and elaborate clothes, as well as to rumoured illicit dalliances with such figures as Robert Dudley. Their presence was for security as well as propriety, as the kingdom was haunted by fears of assassination plots and other Catholic subterfuge. For such was the significance of the queen's body: it represented the very state itself. This riveting, revealing history of the politics of intimacy uncovers the feminized world of the Elizabethan court. Between the scandal and intrigue the women who attended the queen were the guardians of the truth about her health, chastity and fertility. Their stories offer extraordinary insight into the daily life of the Elizabethans, the fragility of royal favour and the price of disloyalty.

Author :
Publisher : BRILL
Page : 441 pages
File Size : 30,71 MB
Release : 2013-10-24
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 9004258396

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The Politics of Female Households is the first collection that seeks to integrate ladies-in-waiting into the master narrative of early modern court studies. Presenting evidence and analysis of the multifarious ways in which ‘women above stairs’ shaped the European courts of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, it argues for a re-assessment of their political influence. The cultural agency of ladies-in-waiting is viewed in the reflection of portraiture, pamphlets and masques: their political dealings and patronage are revealed through analysis of letters, family networks, career patterns, gift exchange and household structures, as well as their activities in the fields of intelligence-gathering and espionage. By concentrating on a previously neglected area of female agency, this collection demonstrates clearly that the political climate of Europe was often shaped outside the male-dominated institutions of government and administration. Contributors include: Helen Graham-Matheson, Hannah Leah Crummé, Katrin Keller, Vanessa de Cruz, Birgit Houben, Dries Raeymaekers, Janet Ravenscroft, Una McIlvenna, Rosalind K. Marshall, Oliver Mallick, Cynthia Fry, Nadine Akkerman, Sara J. Wolfson, Fabian Persson, and Jeroen Duindam.

Author : Anne Somerset
Publisher : Weidenfeld & Nicolson
Page : 352 pages
File Size : 34,8 MB
Release : 2018-04-17
Category : History
ISBN : 9781474608015

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'Provides a wealth of juicy anecdotal material about five centuries of court life from Henry VIII to Elizabeth II' NEW YORK TIMES For centuries the most beautiful, able and aristocratic women in England competed for positions at court. Some were drawn by the prospect of political power. Lucy, Countess of Carlisle, for instance, succeeded in acquiring the confidence of Charles I's French wife, Henrietta Maria, only to betray the Queen to her enemies in Parliament. Some ladies-in-waiting became royal mistresses, such as the rapacious Lady Castlemaine who amassed a fortune and flaunted her hold over Charles II. Others came to court to find husbands only to discover that they were denied permission to marry by their sovereign. Drawing on an enormous variety of sources including the diaries of such shrewd onlookers as Lady Anne Clifford, Lady Cowper and Fanny Burney, Anne Somerset provide a guide to the character, profligate or pious, of each court.

Author : Margaret Rhodes
Publisher : Casemate Publishers
Page : 202 pages
File Size : 14,36 MB
Release : 2011-11-23
Category : Biography & Autobiography
ISBN : 0857901915

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The bestselling behind-the-scenes memoir of the royal family by a cousin who served in MI5—and as one of the Queen’s bridesmaids. Includes photos! A Sunday Times number one bestseller in the United Kingdom, this is the intimate and revealing autobiography of Margaret Rhodes, first cousin of Queen Elizabeth II and niece of Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother. Margaret was born into the Scottish aristocracy, into a now almost vanished world of privilege. Royalty often came to stay, and her house was run in the style of Downton Abbey. During the Second World War, she “lodged” at Buckingham Palace while she worked for MI5. She was a bridesmaid at the wedding of her cousin, Princess Elizabeth, to Prince Philip. Three years later, the King and Queen attended her own wedding, in which Princess Margaret was a bridesmaid. In 1990, she was appointed as a lady-in-waiting to the Queen Mother, acting also as her companion, which she describes in touching detail. In the early months of 2002, she spent as much time as possible with her ailing aunt and was at her bedside when she died. The next morning, she went to Queen Elizabeth’s bedroom to pray, and in farewell dropped her a final curtsey. The Queen Mother regarded Margaret Rhodes as her “third daughter,” and she has been extremely close to her cousins, the Queen and Princess Margaret, throughout their lives. Full of charming anecdotes, fascinating characters, and personal photographs, this is an unparalleled insight into the private life of the British monarchy. “Surprisingly addictive.” —New Zealand Herald