The lives and loves of great mistresses throughout history, including Mary Boleyn, Alice Keppel, Nell Gwynn, Dorothy Jordan, and more
These are the stories of women who belonged to a separate part of society—in some ways invisible and socially unacceptable, yet sometimes in positions of influence, power, comfort, and even luxury. They range from the common-law marriage of Edith Swan-Neck to King Harold II, who was also legally wedded to Edith of Mercia, to the liaison between Edward VII and Alice Keppel, great-grandmother of the Duchess of Cornwall. It includes the passionate loves of great artists: Rodin, Picasso, Charles Dickens, Victor Hugo, and Graham Greene, as well as many more men of arts and letters. Not just confined to the lovers of famous men, this book also charts the history of "ordinary" mistresses, those who did not live in luxury or wield influence. There are stories of power and politics, freedom of speech, and the rise from slum to palace; but above all they are stories of love.