Filled with vivid personalities, gossipy anecdotes, grand houses, and a wealth of period details--plus photographs, illustrations, quotes, and the finer points of Victorian and Edwardian etiquette--To Marry An English Lord is social history at its liveliest and most accessible.

    He was the youngest, a strong-willed, likeable character with an immense thirst for life who faced two overwhelming handicaps. One was haemophilia, then barely understood, which might have killed him at any moment, and in any case subjected him to recurring pain and disability. The other was his mother’s determination to keep complete control over his life. Leopold’s struggle for independence is a compelling human story, using previously unseen correspondence to explore his illness and treatment, his troubled and often stormy relationship with the Queen, and his place in the royal family. It touches on the wider worlds of Victorian Oxford and of literature, art and politics and the varied friendships he made, with Lewis Carroll, John Ruskin, Oscar Wilde, and Disraeli among others. Set against this background, Leopold’s story is a moving account of one man’s search against the odds for personal happiness and a meaningful role in the world.

    turbulent time in English history. Each ruler's survival required a fierce struggle to maintain control - often against incredible odds.From Henry VII, England's last king to win the crown in battle, and the tyrannical Henry VIII with his succession of wives, to the fiercely Catholic 'Bloody Mary', and her sister, Elizabeth, the 'Virgin queen', Jane Bingham examines just how fairly history has treated these Tudor rulers.Both as politicians and as individuals, it is no wonder these larger-than-life monarchs still capture our imaginations today.