Antonia Fraser

Antonia Frasers bestselling biography of Henry VIIIs six wives; a subject of enduring fascination.The six wives of Henry VIII - Catherine of Aragon, Anne Boleyn, Jane Seymour, Anna of Cleves, Katherine Howard and Catherine Parr - have become defined in a popular sense not so much by their lives as by the way these lives ended.But, as Antonia Fraser conclusively proves, they were rich and feisty characters. They may have been victims of Henrys obsession with a male heir, but they were not willing victims. On the contrary, they displayed considerable strength and intelligence at a time when their sex supposedly possessed little of either.

Remember, remember, the Fifth of November ... With a narrative that grips the reader like a detective story, Antonia Fraser brings the characters and events of the Gunpowder Plot to life. Dramatically recreating the conditions and motives that surrounded the fateful night of 5 November 1605, she unravels the tangled web of religion and politics that spawned the plot.An excellent book which unravels the whole story of the plotLiterary ReviewTold with impressive scholarship and panache ... with a sense of pace and tension worthy of a John le Carre novelSunday Telegraph

Following a youth of poverty and bitter exile after his fathers execution, the ousted king first challenged, then made his magnificent escape from, Cromwells troops before he was eventually restored to his throne in triumph in 1660.Spanning his life both before and after the Restoration, Antonia Frasers lively and fascinating biography captures all the vitality of the man and the expansiveness of the age.

Reina María de Escocia pasó su infancia en Francia y se casó con el Delfín para convertirse en reina de Francia a la edad de dieciséis años. Viudo menos de dos años más tarde, regresó a Escocia como la reina después de una ausencia de trece años. Su vida entonces entró en su mejor etapa conocida: las primeras luchas con John Knox, y la nobleza escocesa rebelde, el matrimonio fatal para Darnley y su misteriosa muerte, su matrimonio con Bothwell, el principal sospechoso, que llevaba directamente a su largo cautiverio en Inglés las manos de la reina Isabel, la historia conmovedora y extraordinaria de su largo encarcelamiento, que terminó con la trama laberíntica Babington para liberarla, y su ejecución a la edad de cuarenta y cuatro.

Award-winning historian Antonia Fraser brilliantly portrays a courageous and compassionate woman who refused to be curbed by the personal and political constraints of her time.Caroline Norton dazzled nineteenth-century society with her vivacity, her intelligence, her poetry, and in her role as an artists muse. After her marriage in 1828 to the MP George Norton, she continued to attract friends and admirers to her salon in Westminster, which included the young Disraeli. Most prominent among her admirers was the widowed Prime Minister, Lord Melbourne. Racked with jealousy, George Norton took the Prime Minister to court, suing him for damages on account of his Criminal Conversation (adultery) with Caroline. A dramatic trial followed. Despite the unexpected and sensational resultacquittalNorton was still able to legally deny Caroline access to her three children, all under seven. He also claimed her income as an author for himself, since the copyrights of a married woman belonged to her husband. Yet Caroline refused to despair. Beset by the personal cruelties perpetrated by her husband and a society whose rules were set against her, she chose to fight, not surrender. She channeled her energies in an area of much-needed reform: the rights of a married woman and specifically those of a mother. Over the next few years she campaigned tirelessly, achieving her first landmark victory with the Infant Custody Act of 1839. Provisions which are now taken for granted, such as the right of a mother to have access to her own children, owe much to Caroline, who was determined to secure justice for women at all levels of society from the privileged to the dispossessed.

Mistresses and wives, mothers and daughters - Antonia Fraser brilliantly explores the relationships which existed between The Sun King and the women in his life. This includes not only Louis XIVs mistresses, principally Louise de La Valliere, Athenais de Montespan, and the puritanical Madame de Maintenon, but also the wider story of his relationships with women in general, including his mother Anne of Austria, his two sisters-in-law who were Duchesses dOrleans in succession, Henriette-Anne and Liselotte, his wayward illegitimate daughters, and lastly Adelaide, the beloved child-wife of his grandson.

An inspired evaluation of women leaders in war by a bestselling historian.Antonia Frasers Warrior Queens are those women who have both ruled and led in war. They include Catherine the Great, Elizabeth I, Isabella of Spain, the Rani of Jhansi, and the formidable Queen Jinga of Angola. With Boadicea as the definitive example, her female champions from other ages and civilisations make a fascinating and awesome assembly.Yet if Boadiceas apocryphal chariot has ensured her place in history, what are the myths that surround the others? And how different are the democratically elected if less regal warrior queens of our time: Indira Ghandi and Golda Meir? This remarkable book is much more than a biographical selection. It examines how Antonia Frasers heroines have held and wrested the reins of power from their (consistently male) adversaries.

Ground-breaking ... One of the greatest international bestsellers of the post-war period Andrew Roberts, Daily TelegraphReads like an engrossing novelSunday TimesAn infant queen. A teenage widow. Beautiful, flamboyant Mary Queen of Scots had a formidable intellect but her political sense - formed at the absolute court of France - plunged her country into a maelstrom of intrigue, marriage and murder. Upon fleeing to England she was held captive by her cousin Elizabeth I. In this classic biography, reissued for the fiftieth anniversary of its publication, acclaimed historian Antonia Fraser relates the enthralling story of Marys life and untimely end.

Antonia Frasers bestselling account of the lives of women in seventeenth-century England.Just how weak were the women of the Civil War era? What could they expect beyond marriage and childbirth in an age where infant and maternal mortality was frequent and contraception unknown? Did anyone marry for love? Could a woman divorce? What rights had the unmarried? What expectations the widows? An expert on the period, Antonia Fraser brings to life the many and various women she has encountered in her considerable research: governesses, milkmaids, fishwives, nuns, defenders of castles, courtesans, countesses, witches and widows.

Robin Hood, Maid Marion, Little John, Friar Tuck and the rest of the Merry Men of Sherwood Forest are all here, in stories packed with excitement, drama and romance. Antonia Frasers masterly retellin