The Heiresses of Buccleuch: Marriage, Money and Politics in Seventeenth Century Britain

by Maurice Lee (Author)

• Used

  Paperback
  1994

  $3.29

  This is the true story of what happened to two very wealthy heiresses in a society where money, not love, dictates marriage. Mary and Anna Scott were the daughters of Francis Scott, Earl of Buccleuch, who died in 1651 when they were small children, leaving an estate with the largest income in Scotland. They each inherited this fortune because Mary, the elder, died first and childless. This book tells of their marriages, their husbands and their ultimate destiny. It is also the story of their father, their much-married mother, Margaret Leslie and their wicked and greedy uncles, continually scheming to lay hands on their fortune. Other major players include Anna's father-in-law King Charles II, General Monck, who restored Charles to his throne, Oliver Cromwell and his son Richard, and the Earl of Lauderdale, iron-fisted dictator of Scotland, with innumerable politicians, both English and Scottish, in supporting roles.
  Played out against the background of a strife-torn Scotland in the 1650s, and then of the uncertain calm and sexual permissiveness of Charles II's restored monarchy, this is a story of money and the pursuit of money, of marriages, of family quarrels, aristocratic chicanery and political intrigue of all kinds. Maurice Lee Jr is the author of Government by Pen: The Scotland of King James VI and I , The Road to Revolution , Scotland Under Charles I: 1625-1637 and Great Britain's Solomon: King James VI and I in His Three Kingdoms .