LADIES IN WAITING: FROM THE TUDORS TO THE PRESENT DAY - ANNE IN SOUTH AFRICA

 2005 / Paperback / Good condition The shocking true stories of history's wickedest, weirdest, most wanton Kings, Queens, Tsars, Popes and Emperors.   Far from being servants or decorative accessories in court, ladies-in-waiting competed for real positions of power--and many succeeded in their goals, sometimes betraying their queens in the process. A few even became royal mistresses, such as the rapacious Lady Castlemaine who amassed a fortune and flaunted her hold over King Charles I. Drawing on a wide variety of primary sources, including the diaries of such shrewd onlookers as Lady Cowper and Fanny Burney, bestselling author Anne Somerset provides a guide to the character, profligate or pious, of each court. This lively combination of entertaining anecdote and searching analysis is social history at its most colorful..,."provides a wealth of juicy anecdotal material..."--"The New York Times"