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Genre/Form: | Biographies History Biography |
---|---|
Material Type: | Biography, Internet resource |
Document Type: | Book, Internet Resource |
All Authors / Contributors: |
Lewis Melville |
ISBN: | 1932690131 9781932690132 193269014X 9781932690149 |
OCLC Number: | 60550983 |
Language Note: | This revised edition has parallel English translations for previously untranslated French sections of the 1928 edition, which includes poems, letters, and epitaphs of St. Evremond. |
Description: | viii, 227 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm |
Contents: | Anne, Duchess of York (neé Hyde), 1637-1671 -- Barbara, Duchess of Cleveland (neé Villiers) -- Elizabeth, Countess de Grammont (neé Hamilton), 1641-1708 -- Maids of honor : Goditha Price; Henrietta Maria Blagge; Miss Hobart; and Elizabeth, Countess of Falmouth, afterwards Countess of Dorset (neé Bagot), 1643 -1684 -- Henrietta, Countess of Rochester (neé Boyle) 1643 -1687; Mrs. Jane Myddleton (neé Needham), 1645-1692 -- Frances, Lady Whitmore (neé Brooke), born 1645. ; Elizabeth, Lady Denham (neé Brooke), 1647 -1667 -- Hortensia, Duchess Mazarin (nee Mancini), 1646-1699 -- Frances Teresa, Duchess of Richmond and Lennox (neé Stuart), 1647-1702 -- Elizabeth, Countess of Northumberland, afterwards Countess of Montagu (neé Wriothesley), 1647-1690; Anne, Countess Of Sunderland (neé Digby), 1644-1716 -- Louise, Duchess Of Portsmouth (neé Keroualle), 1649-1734 -- Eleanor ("nell") Gwynn, 1650-1687. |
Responsibility: | by Lewis Melville ; additional French translation by Coby Fletcher. |
More information: |
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WorldCat User Reviews (1)
Portraits of the Windsor court
The Windsor Beauties: Ladies of the Court of Charles II is a recent reprint of Lewis Melville’s classic history of the court of the last Stuart king, first published in 1928. The book takes as its basis a series of portraits painted by Peter Levy in the late seventeenth...
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The Windsor Beauties: Ladies of the Court of Charles II is a recent reprint of Lewis Melville’s classic history of the court of the last Stuart king, first published in 1928. The book takes as its basis a series of portraits painted by Peter Levy in the late seventeenth century. Known collectively as “The Windsor Beauties,” the ladies portrayed in these portraits were all ladies of the court, from Anne, Duchess of York to several of the Queen’s maids of honor. Followers of the English monarchy will recognize many of the women’s maiden names; the series includes, among others, a Villiers, a Hamilton, and a Wriothesley. The book also includes a well-defined black and white reproduction of each portrait.
Melville, however, goes beyond merely reproducing each painting and reciting the details of its creation. He also details the world in which these women lived, the reputations under which they thrived (or suffered), and the contemporary views of them held by their peers and others. For instance, Melville’s two chapters devoted to Barbara, Duchess of Cleveland (whose portrait graces the cover of the book) contain several excerpts from the diary of Samuel Pepys regarding her life and doings. While it’s nearly impossible to disentangle fact from gossip, especially four hundred years after the fact, these vignettes provide a look into the lives of the ladies Levy so brilliantly portrayed in the paintings commissioned by the Duchess of York. The Windsor Beauties is a valuable source for anyone interested in post-Civil War painting, portraiture, or the court of Charles II.
The Windsor Beauties: Ladies of the Court of Charles II, by Lewis Melville. Revised Edition 2005, 1-932690-13-1. 222 pages hardbound.
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Related Subjects:(6)
- Great Britain -- History -- Charles II, 1660-1685 -- Biography.
- Great Britain -- Court and courtiers -- Biography.
- Women -- Great Britain -- Biography.
- Courts and courtiers.
- Women.
- Great Britain.
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- Braganza Thesis(34 items)
by dzumaya updated 2015-02-03