Democratic duke and the mystery of Lady Shrewsbury
Regular price
€22.99
14 days return policy
Shipping & Delivery
17 century England
A01=Jennifer Poole
Author_Jennifer Poole
Category=AMKS
Category=DNBH
Category=NHDL
English country houses
English Dukes in history
English home counties mansions
eq_art-fashion-photography
eq_bestseller
eq_biography-true-stories
eq_history
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
forthcoming
late renaissance history
personal lives of historical people
royal patronage
sex and scandal in 17th century
Product details
- ISBN 9781914280061
- Weight: 1700g
- Dimensions: 189 x 246mm
- Publication Date: 26 Jun 2026
- Publisher: The Choir Press
- Publication City/Country: GB
- Product Form: Paperback
Secure
checkout
Fast Shipping
Easy returns
The Democratic Duke and The Mystery of Lady Shrewsbury offers a fresh, elegantly told portrait of George Villiers, 2nd Duke of Buckingham-the first full biography of him in over seventy years. Far from the reckless courtier of popular legend, Buckingham emerges here as a man of charm, wit and generosity: a patron of the arts, a political reformer, and a figure deeply engaged with the shifting ideas of his age.
Set against the backdrop of a nation finding its way after civil war, this book explores Buckingham's role in the early stirrings of constitutional monarchy. At a time when the rigid certainties of divine right were beginning to soften, he championed tolerance, fairness and a more inclusive vision of society-qualities that lend him a surprising modernity.
At its heart, however, lies a story as intriguing as any hidden behind the walls of a great country house. For more than three centuries, it has been assumed that Buckingham's great love was Anna Maria Brudenell, Countess of Shrewsbury. Drawing on careful research and a keen eye for detail, this book reveals a far more compelling truth: that Buckingham was, in fact, in love with the earl's first wife, Anne Conyers. She was the childhood friend of the duke's own wife, Mary Fairfax who Buckingham and Mary helped to escape from her unhappy marriage before the Restoration. Blending political insight with intimate human drama, this is a biography for readers who delight in the lives, loves and legacies that shaped Britain's historic houses and landscapes-and in the untold stories that still linger within them.
Jennifer Poole is a chartered psychologist and registered complementary medicine practitioner based in the south of England. She has a first class honours psychology degree from Portsmouth University, UK, and a post-graduate degree in child development and education from Exeter University, UK. Following careers in design, residential social work and social care management, she now researches, writes and publishes in each of these fields and is the author of three books on dyslexia and autism. Her 2026 biography of George Villiers, 2nd Duke of Buckingham is the first on this subject for over 70 years and the result of 40 years part-time research. Jennifer is currently working on a public health policy report aimed at assisting the necessary transition of the UK National Health Service from its current drug-based, crisis-intervention focus towards one of non-medicalised, community-based health creation.
