Hilda Winifred Lewis

George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham, was the most powerful and most hated man in the realm throughout nearly two reigns. Handsome, cruel, ambitious Buckingham was the favorite of James I and of Charles, James's proud son. To fill his pockets and swell his pride, Buckingham could bend both monarchs to his will. He cared not if his country suffered. Of all those who loathed and feared Buckingham, Frances Coke, later Frances Villiers, Viscountess Purbeck, loathed and feared him most. Her strange, pale beauty, high spirits and passionate nature marked her as one to trouble the hearts of men, and one to whom a marriage without love would be forever odious. But Buckingham and the whip's lash forced her into a form of marriage with John Villiers, Viscount Purbeck, Buckingham's gangling, half-crazed brother. Their union was never consummated, and it was not long before Frances, like every other woman at the Stuart Court, took a lover, gentle, gifted Robin Howard, her kinsman. Buckingham himself was the lover of the Queen of France, and at the easygoing, pleasure-loving Stuart Court everything was permitted--save that which angered the King's favorite. A cuckolded John Villiers was a personal affront to great Buckingham. Even his death did not still the bitterness against my lady Purbeck, who had caused the scandal of a generation. Frances paid dearly for her illicit love. Frances Villiers, a much wronged woman, lived in an age of chivalry and brutality, color and corruption. Her father was Sir Edward Coke, a harsh, embittered man who paid for rating the Law above the Crown. Francis Bacon was her adviser. King Louis XIII of France and the infinitely cunning Cardinal Richelieu were among her many admirers. Her Odyssey is a stirring and poignant tale by an acknowledged master of the historical novel.

At that famous period of history, when the seventeenth century (after a deal of quarrelling, king-killing, reforming, republicanising, restoring, re-restoring, play-writing, sermon- writing, Oliver-Cromwellising, Stuartising, and Orangising, to be sure) had sunk into its grave, giving place to the lusty eighteenth; when Mr. Isaac Newton was a tutor of Trinity, and Mr. Joseph Addison Commissioner of Appeals; when the presiding genius that watched over the destinies of the French nation had played out all the best cards in his hand, and his adversaries began to pour in their trumps; when there were two kings in Spain employed perpetually in running away from one another; when there was a queen in England, with such rogues for Ministers as have never been seen, no, not in our own day; and a General, of whom it may be severely argued, whether he was the meanest miser or the greatest hero in the world; when Mrs.

But 15 years of age, Isabella Clinton is brought from her country manor to be gentlewoman to the little Queen Isabella, child-wife of England’s King Richard II. She is able to comfort and befriend the little girl through all the political intrigues and dangers of court life, and to share with her the bitterness of Richard’s overthrow by his cousin Bolingbroke. The tragic story of Isabella of France is beautifully told through the sharp, but gentle eyes of Isabella Clinton and the book gives a vivid picture of life in England at the court of Richard II.

Devoted to the memory of the dead King Harold, a young steward in eleventh-century England refuses to accept the rule of William the Conqueror.

She was Catharine of Valois, youngest daughter of that pathetic pair, Charles the Mad of France and Isabeau of Bavaria, most beautiful, most powerful and reputedly, most wanton woman of her time. He was Henry of England, that bright, shining star flashing through the heavens as victor at Agincourt and conqueror of France. Their troth was plighted while they were leagues apart, before one had ever seen the other, but to win his bride Henry had to fight his way through the massed chivalry of the greatest military power on earth. And yet, was it Catharine he wanted, or the crown he could claim through her, so he might rule two thrones where no one man had ever ruled before? For did not his own uncle, the Bishop of Winchester, who knew Henry as did few men, say, “He has no lust for women; his whole lust is for war.” So, Catharine, with her background of poverty amidst fantastic luxury, of blood and cruelty, of masques and triumphs, of true religious faith and spiritual fervor, went to the marriage bed to find Henry had little time or inclination for a wife. Always before his eyes was England, his “rights,” his lands—and his claim to France. *** FOREWORD: The scene is set in England and in France. The story begins in 1413. In England Henry V has just ascended the throne. Young, untried, and of the usurping house of Lancaster, he has yet to win his people's love; the glory of Agincourt is yet to come. In France six years have passed since Louis of Orleans was murdered by John of Burgundy. The Count of Armagnac has taken upon himself the Orleans quarrel and the old hatred springs more deadly than before. The country is torn between Armagnac and Burgundian. No man knows loyalty save to himself and perhaps to his party. The mad King Charles VI turns first to this side and then to that. The wanton Queen Isabeau, hating both parties, watches with shrewd eyes to make herself mistress of France. Into this torn and troubled land comes the demand of Henry V first for the vast territories ceded to his great-grandfather Edward III by the Treaty of Brétigny, and then—for the crown itself.