Table of Contents
Cast of Characters vii
Timeline xii
Introduction 1
Part I Anna Maria
1 The Duel 9
2 'Beds of Jewels and Rich Mines of Gold' 15
3 'He Came, He Saw and Conquered' 21
4 A London Love Triangle 31
5 The Drama of Politics 43
6 Conception 49
7 Betrayals 57
8 'Your Most Unhappy Mother' 61
9 Construction 66
10 The Lost Mistress 74
Part II Elizabeth
1 From Richmond to 'Royal Whore' 81
2 The End of the Affair 91
3 Favours 103
4 Rebuilding 109
5 'This Place Is Too Engaging' 115
6 'The Wisest Woman I Ever Saw' 124
7 'I Have Tired Myself with Fright' 129
8 The Green Revolution 137
9 "It Was as if His Majesty Had Lived Here' 143
10 'The Shock Is Greater Than I Ever Had in My Life' 148
Part III Augusta
1 Rule, Britannia! 155
2 Rise 164
3 'A Profusion of Finery' 173
4 A Hanoverian Soap Opera 179
5 The Queen Is Dead, Long Live the Queen 189
6 The Charms of Sylvia 196
7 Fall 203
8 'A Site of Ruin' 212
Part IV Harriet
1 'Goodbye, Castle Howard!' 221
2 Reform and Revolution 228
3 Fear in a Time of Cholera 236
4 North and South 242
5 'A Leviathan of Wealth' 250
6 Crisis in the Bedchamber 260
7 A Marriage, a Death and a Blaze 267
8 A Resurrection 272
9 'Thou Hypocrite' 280
10 'What a Hold a Place Has Upon One' 287
11 An Independent Widow 298
12 Garibaldi-mania 304
13 The Pushing Stick 312
Part V Nancy
1 The Chronicles of Cliveden 323
2 The Thrill of the Chase 335
3 There's No Place Like Home 341
4 Life Among the Ruins 352
5 'A Lady for Parliament' 360
6 'A Rattlesnake in the House' 368
7 The Domestic Despot 375
8 Convictions 384
9 The Cliveden Set Up 391
10 Cartwheels in the Bunker 402
11 Farewell to Both My Houses 409
12 School for Scandal 425
Notes 439
Select Bibliography 467
Picture Credits 483
Index 486
Acknowledgements 494