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Eleanor Alice Burford was born on 1 September 1906 in Kensington, London, England. She married ta leather merchant, George Percival Hibber, who shared her love of books and reading. Eleanor Burford was one of the preeminent English authors of historical fiction for most of the twentieth century. She used eight pennames during her career and many of her readers under one penname never suspected her other identities. In 1941, she began signing her novels with her maiden name: Eleanor Burford, later she created her first and most prolific pseudonym: Jean Plaidy. In the 1950's she used the pseudonyms: Elbur Ford, Kathleen Kellow and Ellalice Tate. In 1960, she created the pseudonyms: Anna Percival and the popular Victoria Holt. In 1972, she created her last pseudonym Philippa Carr. (Some of her novels were reedited as different pseudonyms). She died on January 18, 1993 at sea, somewhere between Greece and Port Said, Egypt. By the time of her death, she sold 56 millon copies as Victoria Holt, 14 as Jean Plaidy and, 3 as Phillipa Carr.
KITTY. CAROLAN. KATHARINE. THREE GENERATIONS OF PASSION-ATE AND STRONG-WILLED WOMEN WHO KNEW HOW TO GET WHAT THEY WANTED.... Kitty Kennedy lost her true love before their child was born. She was desperate to protect herself and give her baby a ...
ONE POWERFUL KING. TWO TRAGIC QUEENS. In the court of Henry VIII, it was dangerous for a woman to catch the king's eye. Anne Boleyn and Catherine Howard were cousins. Both were beautiful women, though very different in temperament. They each learned...
The Transition of Innocent Girl Into Sinister Consort Sullen-eyed and broken hearted, fourteen-year-old Catherine de'Medici rode into France. Behind her and before her rode the nobility of Italy. She was to marry Henry of Orleans, second son of th...
The King is dead. Long live the...Regent. Scorned by Henry II, ignored by his court in favor of the Royal mistress Diane de Poitiers, Catherine de Medici exulted at the Monarch's death. Her sickly sons might reign, but the Queen Regent would r...
"CITIZENS, HIDE YOUR WIVES AND DAUGHTERS FOR THE KING COMES THIS WAY" Jane Shore well knew the reputation of the notorious libertine Edward the IV of England. His romantic escapades were the talk of the land. The beautiful young wife of the goldsm...
Even Tamar's mother believed that the child had been forced on her by the Devil when, against her judgement, she was persuaded to attend a midsummer sabbath of witches. In a world of superstition and intolerance, Tamar, growing into a wild and be...
"God save the Queen!" Never was the cry more meaningful than during the last tempestuous years of Henry VIII, when that murderous and mighty monarch forced gentle Katharine Parr to become his sixth queen. Quiet and courageous, Katharine suffe...
August 24th, 1572 -- Madness seized Catholic Paris. The cobbles were stained with Huguenot blood. The carnival of butchery begun by the bell of Saint-Germain I'Auxerrois raged unchecked. To her other crimes Catherine de' Medici now added the infam...
Power-hungry monarch, cold-blooded murderer, obsessive monster--who could love such a man? Set against the glittering courts of sixteenth-century Europe, the Spain of the dreaded Inquisition, and the tortured England of Bloody Mary, For a Queen's ...
No one dared refuse the friendship of the king. Especially a king like Henry. But neither friendship, nor fame, nor fortune, nor fear of the executioner's ax could corrupt the honor of a man like Sir Thomas More. When Henry's consuming passion to mak...
Robert Dudley was determined not to follow in the footsteps of his father and grandfather, both of whom had died on the scaffold. But already at 20 Robert was a prisoner in the grim Tower of London, his life hanging by a tenuous thread. The young ...
As the child-bride of the frail Dauphin, Mary Stuart was unaware of the ecstasies of the flesh. But the vibrantly sensual woman sleeping within her was soon awakened by two power-hungry men who seduced her and betrayed her in pursuit of their ruthles...
These are dark days for England; the Tudor succession hangs precariously in the balance, along with the lives of its people. The wrong religion can all too easily mean a brutal death in a time when the difference between 'faithful' and 'heretic' rest...
Against the colorful backdrop of 17th-century England comes the romantic story of Charles Stuart's return to the throne. For years an exiled prince, he wandered throughout Europe, a man without a country. Then one day England thrust aside her Puritan...
HIS NAME WAS CHARLES STUART... He was young, handsome, and one day he would be king. One day. But first he would have to wander the face of Europe trying to regain the throne that had been taken from him. He was a man who loved women more th...
Here is the vivid world of England under the romantic figure of Charles II. A beloved king with a zest for life. Charles is the man who is quick to notice a beautiful woman and just as quick to make her his mistress. Like the actress Nell Gwynn, w...
It was a world turned upside down... ...with the Queen Mother of France making martyrs out of innocent Huguenots, King Philip of Spain spreading fear and torture with his Inquisition, and Queen Elizabeth dispatching spies to every comer of England...
"Why do these men seek my hand in marriage? Have they not yet learned that my husbands are unlucky men?" "You are so beautiful, so infinitely desirable," said Alexander. "No," she answered. "It is simpler than that. I am the daughter of the Pop...
The legendary Lucrezia Borgia did everything with a passion intensity. She loved with a burning lust. She hated with a ruthless violence. There wasn't another woman in all of Rome who could rival her exquisite beauty--or her incredible power. As t...
Castile for Isabella covers the early life of the most significant of all Spanish monarchs: Isabella of Castile. Isabella is seen as a young girl,within a few steps of the throne; first in the care of an ambitious but unbalanced mother; later in the ...
Married to Ferdinand after continual fears and disappointments, Isabella triumphed over every danger, convinced of her true destiny. With the might of Portugal humbled, the Court of the Sovereigns saw the rise of Torquemada, the establishment of the ...
With Spain now united, Ferdinand looked to his daughters to further his ambitions. All too often, Isabella found herself torn between his brilliant plans and her love for her children. During the last years of Isabella's reign it seemed there was...
IN THE ROYAL MARRIAGE MARKET THE INFANTA OF SPAIN WAS A TRUE PRIZE. In the eyes of the world, 17 years old Katharine of Aragon and Castile was a precious object to be disposed of for the glory of Spain. Her parents, Queen Isabella and King Ferdinan...
THE MARRIAGE OF KATHERINE OF ARAGON AND KING HENRY VIII WAS A RIGHT ROYAL MATCH. England loved the young royal couple, but hardly were they wed when powerful people in Henry's court were spinning webs of intrigue around the innocent royal pair...
The personalities and intrigues of the English royal court are brought to vivid life in this tale of Katharine of Aragon, the first wife of Henry VIII. The twelve-year marriage of Henry and Katharine has declined from an idyllic union into an uneasy ...
DRAMA... PATHOS... SUSPENSE... ... abound in this poignant novel of Mary Queen of Scots, whose beauty and daring captured the hearts of men--and challenged the cruel power of her most dangerous rival, Elizabeth, Queen of England. From the momen...
From the pen of the legendary historical novelist Jean Plaidy comes the story of Princess Margaret Tudor, whose life of tragedy, bloodshed, and scandal would rival even that of her younger brother, Henry VIII. Princess Margaret Tudor is the greate...
Legendary historical novelist Jean Plaidy brings to life the story of Princess Mary Tudor, a celebrated beauty and born rebel who would defy the most powerful king in Europe--her older brother. Princess Mary Rose is the youngest sister of Henry VI...
The beautiful Frances, Countess of Essex, would let nothing stand in the way of her desires. And now she desired the handsome Robert Carr, favorite of the doting King. Not letting her own marriage deter her, Frances pursues the young friend of kings ...
From the time he was fifteen, women found Henry of Navarre irresistible. But he was never faithful for long. Marked for death by a Catholic count who saw in him the rallying point of Huguenot fortunes, Henry took his pleasures where he found them. ...
WHEN AN EMPIRE IS AT STAKE, ONE WOMAN STANDS BETWEEN THE PAST AND THE FUTURE In post-Restoration England, King Charles II has fathered numerous bastards, but not a single legitimate heir. Because of this, his brother, James, Duke of York, is heir-p...
Two sisters change the course of a nation by forsaking the King -- their own father. England is on the verge of revolution. Antagonized by the Catholicism of King James II, the people plot to drive him from the throne. But at the heart of the plo...
A private battle rages at court for the affections of a childless queen, who must soon name her successor--and thus determine the future of the British Empire. It is the beginning of the eighteenth century and William of Orange is dying. Soon Ann...
SHE WAS ONLY AN INNOCENT GERMAN PRINCESS. BUT SHE WOULD INHERIT THE MIGHTIEST KINGDOM OFALL.... Princess Sophia Dorothea wanted only to live forever in Germany's Celle. But it was ordained that she marry the hideous George Lewis, the son of the mi...
SHE WAS DESTINED TO BE QUEEN, BUT TIME WAS RUNNING OUT.... Her name was Caroline of Ansbach, a woman taught the cruelties of life at an early age. Refusing to succumb to her stepfather's abominable behavior, she married George Augustus, Prince of ...
EVERYONE KNEW THAT QUEEN CAROLINE WAS THE REAL ROYAL POWER EXCEPT THE KING. No one, not even the Queen's most powerful enemies, dared tell the vain and bullying little King, George II of England, that the Queen and the Prime Minister, Robert Walpo...
ALL LONDON LOVED BEAUTIFUL PERDITA... BUT SHE LOVED ONLY THE AMOROUS YOUNG PRINCE OF WALES. The handsome Prince of Wales was not yet of age, but already he was known as a lady's man. First had been the seductive Harriot Vernon, who, when the Queen...
A YOUNG KING ON THE BRINK OF A CHANGING WORLD HE CANNOT CONTROL Young George III wanted more than anything to be a good king, but by the late eighteenth century England was no longer a small island nation. George's brilliant ministers were determi...
PRINCESS CAROLINE OF BRUNSWICK WAS TWENTY SIX YEARS OLD AND PEOPLE WERE SAYING THAT SHE WOULD NEVER BE MARRIED.... But a grand destiny was about to unfold for the lively Princess, as bride of England's handsome Prince of Wales, soon to be Regent and ...
BEAUTIFUL MARIA FITZHERBERT IS ENGLAND'S QUEEN IN ALL BUT NAME. Although the young widow Maria Fitzherbert is a commoner and a Catholic, her dashing suitor is none other than the Prince of Wales, whose unquestioned royal duty it is to marry a Prot...
THE BITTERSWEET ADVENTURES OF THE REGENCY THEATRE'S BEGUILING COMIC GENIUS Few people knew of the abuse and indignities that pursued enchanting Dorothy Jordan when she fled from Ireland to seek a new life in England. Even fewer suspected the troub...
YOUNG PRINCESS CHARLOTTE WAS ALMOST AN ORPHAN. Her mother was a madwoman. Her father heartily disliked her--Charlotte was too unfinished and impulsive for his exquisite taste. Much worse, she was her mother's daughter. The Regent hated his estrang...
SHE WAS HAUNTED BY A CROWN AND SCEPTER. Young Princess Victoria was never allowed to be alone. She was always protected from political intrigue and royal scandal--a virtual prisoner of her ambitious mother and her scheming lover. It didn't take...
ENGLAND'S HANOVERIAN DYNASTY DESPERATELY NEEDED AN HEIR. King George III was mad and locked up with his keepers. The dissipated Prince Regent was ailing, and his only heir, Princess Charlotte, had died in childbirth. Radical measures were called f...
VICTORIA AND MELBOURNE She was an eighteen-year-old innocent. He was a worldly cynic. She was too young to have a past. He was too old to be her future. But she was his Queen and he was her Prime Minister, bound together by an unspoken love that a...
VICTORIA AND ALBERT Victoria and Albert were destined for each other. Albert, younger son of a minor German duke, was ambitious. He well knew what marriage to the Queen of England would do for him. Victoria was independent--until she saw Alber...
WILLIAM Though he was born to rule, he was the bastard son of a nobleman and a common woman. Only a spirited and a ruthless man like William could make the spectacular rise from bastard to king and overcome the treachery of his enemies... MATILDA...
SHE WAS THE QUEEN. SHE WAS A WIDOW. BUT SHE WAS ALSO A WOMAN... Even her gay, charming, and philandering son, Bertie, soon to become King Edward, could not help being amused by the scandal that attached to his mother's relationship with the romant...
Mary Queen of Scots is the most romantic and enigmatic queen in history...A compelling account of the woman who, but for unfortunate timing and occasional unwise loving, could have overtaken Elizabeth I as Queen, and England would have been once agai...
A WOMAN OF VIRTUE... A MAN OF PASSION... . THEIR LOVE STORMED SANCTIFIED FORTRESSES -- AND THEIR VOWS FLAMED A NATION TO GLORY! The raging saga of Prince Henry of England, whose burning desire for the Crown was matched only by his fierce determ...
AS RULERS, THEY WISHED EACH OTHER DEAD. AS LOVERS, NO ONE ALIVE COULD BEGIN TO COMPARE. THEY WERE... The Passionate Enemies SHE WAS MATILDA The arrogant, cold daughter of Henry I. An Empress, a woman who had worn out one aging husband, only to d...
ONE OF THE MOST GLAMOROUS HOUSES IN HISTORY--THE PLANTAGENETS. A FIERY, ROMANTIC ROYAL FAMILY, AS VARIED AS THE BRANCHES THAT GREW FROM THE FIRST MIGHTY TRUNK... ELEANOR OF AQUITAINE --A brilliant, elegant beauty whose hunger for men was rivaled...
A most unholy alliance. The resplendent epoch of the Plantagenets continues with the story of Richard the King the Lion Heart the man with a will as indomitable as his passions were perverse. Here, too, are the women who ruled over the dawn of ...
The untimely death of Richard the Lionheart left his nephew Arthur and his younger brother John in contest for the throne of England. Reluctantly the barons chose John, and so began years of rule by a ruthless and greedy tyrant. Yet despite his reput...
BEAUTY AMBITION EVIL Two powerful women dominated the first half of the thirteenth century. They were proud, ambitious and beautiful. But they differed mightily. ISABELLA Flamboyant, ruthless, passionate--the wife of King John of England. Sh...
THESE WERE STIRRING TIMES AND EDWARD'S AMBITION WAS TO UNITE THE KINGDOMS OF ENGLAND, SCOTLAND, AND WALES... The news of Henry III's death reached his son Edward I on the long road home from the Holy Land. Now he was England's king and a man fit f...
Marguerite, eldest daughter of the Count of Provence, had married a king of France - and now her sister Eleanor is determined to make just as grand a match. Good fortune and wily cunning bring her Henry of England. A good and generous husband but a w...
Edward the Second's first act on coming to the throne is to recall Piers Gaveston from exile, and the new king's devotion to the shrewd and avaricious young man soon becomes a scandal. It is assumed that when Edward marries one of the most beautiful ...
HOW TRAGIC IT WAS TO BE A KING AND ONLY FIFTEEN. Edward the Third had come to the throne through the conniving of his mother. He was but a boy. Even so, the Queen did not want him inquiring too deeply into the death of his father, who had been bru...
HE WAS A KING FOR ALL HIS LIFE--AND LIKE ANY KING, WAS BOTH HATED AND LOVED... At the age of nine months, Henry VI became king of a turbulent England. Three women who came into his life were to have a deep and lasting effect not only on him but on...
The Black Prince, hero of England, had died before his father Edward the Third, who had become a senile old man dependent on his rapacious mistress Alice Perrers; the heir to the throne was a young boy, Richard of Bordeaux, surrounded by ambitious un...
A WOMAN'S AMBITION WAS FULFILLED THROUGH MEN--BUT MEN HAD AMBITIONS OF THEIR OWN. Margaret of Anjou came to England and married King Henry VI. Born to a family of strong women, Margaret was no exception. She was passionate, impulsive, loving, viol...
HE CRAVED A CROWN--BUT HOW LITTLE HE KNEW OF THE CARES OF A KING As bold, lusty Henry of Bolingbroke, he roused England's nobility to triumphant rebellion against the weak and unwise King Richard II, who lost first his throne and finally his life ...
A KING ENTRUSTED WITH THE CARE OF A NATION. A MAN WHOSE PASSION COULD BE DESTRUCTIVE. No sooner was Edward IV crowned King of England than he fell in love with Elizabeth Woodville, a beautiful young widow who refused to become his mistress. Despit...
Told in the first person by each great queen, dramatized in that authentic, rich historical detail that is Jean Plaidy's trademark, each book tells the story of a queen whose life remains as fresh and important as yesterday. HENRIETTA MARIA The d...
Elizabeth I Denounced as a bastard, imprisoned in the Tower of London by her fanatical sister, the iron-willed daughter of Henry VIII nevertheless was certain it was her destiny to become Queen of England. And when the crown finally came to her, s...
From exile and war to love and loss -- every dynasty has a beginning.Henry Tudor was not born to the throne of England. Having come of age in a time of political turmoil and danger, the man who would become Henry VII spent fourteen years in exile in ...
At eighteen, Princess Victoria of Kent became Queen Victoria of England, bitterly resented by most of her royal relatives. Willful, enchanting, tender, passionate, regal, her unique personality gave to an age its style and essential character--and ev...
"When I look back over my long and tempestuous life, I can see that much of what happened to me-my triumphs and most of my misfortunes-were due to my passionate relationships with men." Raised in the pleasure-loving Aquitaine duchy of France, wher...
Beautiful, doomed Anne Boleyn... forbidden to marry the man she loved...trapped by the relentless passion of her liege lord, King Henry VIII...destroyed in a political catastrophe whose poignant echoes still reverberate. Her attractions were so powe...
France eagerly awaits the day the young King, Louis XV, comes of age and breaks free from the rule of his ministers. The country hopes Louis will bring back glory and prosperity to France. However, he is too preoccupied with the thrills of hunting an...
OF ALL THE WOMEN HENRY VIII BETRAYED, HIS DAUGHTER MARY SUFFERED THE MOST.... Had Mary Tudor been born the boy that her father desperately wanted, both her own life and the course of English history might have been dramatically different. As it happ...
PRINCESS KATHERINE'S WEDDING TO THE KING OF ENGLAND WAS A STORYBOOK ROMANCE COME TRUE. After a miserable childhood, Princess Katherine of France was enchanted to find herself married to the handsome young King of England, Henry V. But England's tr...
A daughter’s love. A monarch’s duty. On the road to greatness, one young woman must make an unthinkable choice.For Princess Mary, life has never been simple, but through it all the love of her father, the Duke of York, has been a constant and rel...
LADY ANNE NEVILLE MIGHT HAVE BEEN THE HAPPIEST WOMAN IN ENGLAND.... But there was one insurmountable obstacle. Her father, the great Earl of Warwick, was not content with having put the handsome Plantagenet prince Edward IV on England's throne; he...
SHE WAS READY TO ENDURE ALL -- FOR THE PLEASURES OF LOVE Newly married to King Charles II, Catherine of Braganza has left her sheltered upbringing in Portugal to become part of the notoriously licentious English court. She soon falls deeply in lov...
From the pen of legendary historical novelist Jean Plaidy comes an unforgettable true story of royalty, passion, and innocence lost. Born into an impoverished branch of the noble Howard family, young Katherine is plucked from her home to live ...