The Democratic Duke and The Mystery of Lady Shrewsbury offers a fresh, elegantly told portrait of George Villiers, 2nd Duke of Buckingham-the first full biography of him in over seventy years. Far from the reckless courtier of popular legend, Buckingham emerges here as a man of charm, wit and generosity: a patron of the arts, a political reformer, and a figure deeply engaged with the shifting ideas of his age. Set against the backdrop of a nation finding its way after civil war, this book explores Buckingham's role in the early stirrings of constitutional monarchy. At a time when the rigid certainties of divine right were beginning to soften, he championed tolerance, fairness and a more inclusive vision of society-qualities that lend him a surprising modernity. At its heart, however, lies a story as intriguing as any hidden behind the walls of a great country house. For more than three centuries, it has been assumed that Buckingham's great love was Anna Maria Brudenell, Countess of Shrewsbury. Drawing on careful research and a keen eye for detail, this book reveals a far more compelling truth: that Buckingham was, in fact, in love with the earl's first wife, Anne Conyers. She was the childhood friend of the duke's own wife, Mary Fairfax who Buckingham and Mary helped to escape from her unhappy marriage before the Restoration. Blending political insight with intimate human drama, this is a biography for readers who delight in the lives, loves and legacies that shaped Britain's historic houses and landscapes-and in the untold stories that still linger within them.
