Books

Henrietta Howard: King’s Mistress, Queen’s Servant - by Tracy Borman

The book is available to buy from Amazon.co.uk or Random House

Henrietta Howard, later Countess of Suffolk, was the long-term mistress and confidante of King George II. Described by Swift as a consummate courtier who packed away her 'private virtues… like cloaths in a chest', by Pope as ‘so very reasonable, so unmov'd', and by the world at large as 'the Swiss' (due to her apparent neutrality), she remains as fascinating and perplexing today as she was for her contemporaries.

At the age of nine, Henrietta's idyllic childhood was shattered when her father was killed in a duel. Her mother's death three years later left her an orphan, and she soon afterwards made a disastrous marriage to Charles Howard, youngest son of the Earl of Suffolk. Having been dragged into poverty by her brutal husband, Henrietta used her own ingenuity and determination to secure a role at the very heart of the royal court. Although renowned for her passivity and mildness, her relations with the Queen were increasingly acrimonious, and she made an enemy of Prime Minister Robert Walpole before eventually resigning her position amidst intense political scandal.

As well as providing a fascinating insight into the dynamics of the Georgian court, Tracy Borman's wonderful biography reveals a woman who was far more than the mistress to the King: a dedicated patron of the arts; a lively and talented intellectual in her own right; a victim of violence and adultery; a passionate advocate for the rights of women long before the dawn of feminism. Above all, she was a woman of reason in an Age of Reason. The mark that this enigmatic and largely forgotten royal mistress left on the society and culture of early Georgian England was to resonate well beyond the confines of the court, and can still be felt today.

Publication date: 6 September 2007

 

Elizabeth's Women: The Hidden Story of the Virgin Queen - by Tracy Borman
 

Elizabeth's Women was published by Jonathan Cape on 24th September 2009. It explores all of the most important women in Elizabeth's life: from her bewitching mother, Anne Boleyn, to her dangerously obsessive sister, Mary Tudor, and from the rivals to her throne such as Mary, Queen of Scots and the sisters of Lady Jane Grey, to the 'flouting wenches' like Lettice Knollys who stole her closest male favourite. These were the women who shaped the Virgin Queen and it is through their eyes that the real Elizabeth, stripped of her carefully cultivated image, is revealed.

Elizabeth's Women was published in paperback by Vintage in July 2010.

Both books are available to buy from Amazon.co.uk or Random House