Flora Fraser

To be honest, I wouldn't select Caroline of Brunswick to be my best friend. Still, the literal trial she faced from an adulterous husband who had the gall to accuse her of adultery after making her life miserable for over twenty years has enough sexist undertones to make me furious. Caroline and her husband George IV of Great Britain (perhaps better known as the Prince Regent) are both frustrating figures. Temperamentally unsuited to each other, the couple managed to not get along in a show more rather spectacular fashion. This biography of Queen Caroline chronicles the struggles of that unhappy marriage against the background of Europe during the Napoleonic wars. The era is fascinating and Caroline's story is but one of many interesting tales to emerge from the early nineteenth century. If you're intrigued as I am about this period, this is definitely a good book to read. show less

Flora Fraser daughter of Lady Antonia Fraser, is making no attempt at all to walk in her revered mother's footsteps. For which, I say, "thank god". Flora (named for Flora MacDonald the Jacobite heroine, do you expect anything less from the Frasers??) writes of the daughters of "Mad King George" with sympathy, yet with a bluntness than is refreshing. Never skirting around Sophia's trangressions as a young woman, and even admitting that St. Amelia may not have been all too saintly, she blows show more away the sugar coated Victorian myths of these last of the Georgian royals, who had a hard time becoming Victorians and helps us to understand what formed these wonderful women who had a hard time watching an adored father go insane, and an adored mother close her mind to anything she didn't like. Fraser touches on the daughter's relationship with Charlotte the beloved niece, who died so tragically young, and then later, the young unformed Victoria, kept so distant by a domineering mother and misguided guardians. Many forget that the last of the sisters lived until 1857, spanning decades of history and crossing two great thrones of history.

Fraser does a stunning job in this book, and while I do find a few spots weak, it is excellent and the first full coverage of the sisters. I am a little dissapointed at all the emphasis on Charlotte, who was not a sister but in fact a niece, and of course, wish the book had been a bit more detailed in some areas. Overall however Fraser is a more than a ble researcher and historian. show less

This book, while it concentrates on the lives of the six daughters of King George III of England, does take in quite a bit of King George and his consort Queen Charlotte, as well as the princesses' brothers, including the future George IV. One problem, which Fraser largely battles successfully, is keeping the massive cast straight, inclusive of the fact that many personages have the same or similar names. The family tree in the front of the book certainly gets a workout! The biggest problem show more is that Fraser isn't really able to make the princesses interesting; you get the strong impression from the book that they led crashingly dull lives. Most of the drama seems to have come from various illnesses that they suffered, mixed here and there with largely failed romantic efforts. Fraser thus seems to have put an enormous amount of effort into a work that, in the final analysis, doesn't really shed a great deal of light, save for some of the dysfunctions of the Hanoverian royal family. Worth it if you're a fan of the royal family; not so much if you're not. show less

The “madness of King George” has been fodder for plays, movies and numerous books, but the fate of his fifteen children is rarely discussed. FIFTEEN children. This is a well-written, well-documented examination of the lives of the king’s six daughters, none of whom were allowed to marry during his lifetime. As a result, they remained cloistered in their palaces until their forties, at which point he died and they married left, right and center.