Secret History of the Court of England, from the Accession of George the Third to the Death of George the Fourth, Volume 1 (of 2)including, Among Other Important Matters, Full Particulars of the Mysterious Death of the Princess Charlotte
1901
Secret History of the Court of England, from the Accession of George the Third to the Death of George the Fourth, Volume 1 (of 2)including, Among Other Important Matters, Full Particulars of the Mysterious Death of the Princess Charlotte
1901
A scandalous expose of the British royal court during two of its most turbulent reigns, this volume pulls back the velvet curtain on Hanoverian Britain to reveal a world of clandestine marriages, political manipulation, and royal dysfunction. Lady Hamilton, drawing on intimate knowledge of court circles, turns her gimlet eye on George III and George IV, documenting the alleged secret marriage of the young king to Hannah Lightfoot, a Quaker beauty, and the subsequent forced political marriage that would haunt his reign. The book reaches its tragic apex with the mysterious death of Princess Charlotte in 1817, beloved heir to the throne, her loss plunged the nation into mourning and sparked whispers that persist to this day. Part roman a clef, part political polemic, this is history as lived drama: decadent, dangerous, and utterly without filter. For readers who thrill at the sight of crowns cracked and scepters shaken.
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“Beauty is terror. Whatever we call beautiful, we quiver before it.””
— Anne, Lady Hamilton
“Does such a thing as 'the fatal flaw,' that showy dark crack running down the middle of a life, exist outside literature? I used to think it didn't. Now I think it does. And I think that mine is this: a morbid longing for the picturesque at all costs.””
— Anne, Lady Hamilton
“Forgive me, for all the things I did but mostly for the ones that I did not.””
— Anne, Lady Hamilton
“Beauty is rarely soft or consolatory. Quite the contrary. Genuine beauty is always quite alarming.””
— Anne, Lady Hamilton
“It's a very Greek idea, and a very profound one. Beauty is terror. Whatever we call beautiful, we quiver before it. And what could be more terrifying and beautiful, to souls like the Greeks or our own, than to lose control completely? To throw off the chains of being for an instant, to shatter the accident of our mortal selves? Euripides speaks of the Maenads: head thrown I back, throat to the stars, "more like deer than human being." To be absolutely free! One is quite capable, of course, of working out these destructive passions in more vulgar and less efficient ways. But how glorious to release them in a single burst! To sing, to scream, to dance barefoot in the woods in the dead of night, with no more awareness of mortality than an animal! These are powerful mysteries. The bellowing of bulls. Springs of honey bubbling from the ground. If we are strong enough in our souls we can rip away the veil and look that naked, terrible beauty right in the face; let God consume us, devour us, unstring our bones. Then spit us out reborn.””
— Anne, Lady Hamilton
“It is is better to know one book intimately than a hundred superficially.””
— Anne, Lady Hamilton
“But how,” said Charles, who was close to tears, “how can you possibly justify cold-blooded murder?’ Henry lit a cigarette. “I prefer to think of it,” he had said, “as redistribution of matter.””
— Anne, Lady Hamilton
“I suppose at one time in my life I might have had any number of stories, but now there is no other. This is the only story I will ever be able to tell.””
— Anne, Lady Hamilton
“There is nothing wrong with the love of Beauty. But Beauty - unless she is wed to something more meaningful - is always superficial.””
— Anne, Lady Hamilton
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Anne, Lady Hamilton. Secret History of the Court of England, from the Accession of George the Third to the Death of George the Fourth, Volume 1 (of 2)including, Among Other Important Matters, Full Particulars of the Mysterious Death of the Princess Charlotte. Lex, lex-books.com/book/secret-history-of-the-court-of-england-from-the-accession-of-george-the-third-to-4853f3ad-894c-4176-a26e-74408b8bcef0.Anne, L. H. (1901). Secret History of the Court of England, from the Accession of George the Third to the Death of George the Fourth, Volume 1 (of 2)including, Among Other Important Matters, Full Particulars of the Mysterious Death of the Princess Charlotte. Lex. https://lex-books.com/book/secret-history-of-the-court-of-england-from-the-accession-of-george-the-third-to-4853f3ad-894c-4176-a26e-74408b8bcef0Anne, Lady Hamilton. Secret History of the Court of England, from the Accession of George the Third to the Death of George the Fourth, Volume 1 (of 2)including, Among Other Important Matters, Full Particulars of the Mysterious Death of the Princess Charlotte. Lex. https://lex-books.com/book/secret-history-of-the-court-of-england-from-the-accession-of-george-the-third-to-4853f3ad-894c-4176-a26e-74408b8bcef0.