Wedlock
The True Story of the Disastrous Marriage and Remarkable Divorce of Mary Eleanor Bowes, Countess of Strathmore
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- $5.99
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- $5.99
Publisher Description
A cinematic and thrilling true story exploring the life and catastrophic marriage of Mary Eleanor Bowes, Countess of Strathmore—“a tale of wealth, status, and privilege, laced with lust, greed, [and] pride” (The Times)
“Spectacular . . . Serious, perceptive, thoughtful and—by no means least—compulsively readable.”—Jonathan Yardley, The Washington Post
With the death of her fabulously wealthy coal magnate father, Mary Eleanor Bowes became the richest heiress in Britain. An ancestor of Queen Elizabeth II, Mary grew to be a highly educated young woman, winning acclaim as a playwright and botanist. At eighteen, she married the handsome but aloof ninth Earl of Strathmore in a celebrated, if ultimately troubled, match that forged the Bowes Lyon name. Freed from this unhappy marriage by her husband’s early death, she stumbled headlong into scandal when a charming Irish soldier, Captain Andrew Robinson Stoney, flattered his way into the merry widow’s bed.
When Mary heard that her gallant hero was mortally wounded in a duel defending her honor, she could hardly refuse his dying wish; four days later they were married. Yet the “captain” was not what he seemed. Staging a sudden and remarkable recovery, Stoney was revealed as a debt-ridden lieutenant, a fraudster, and a bully.
Immediately taking control of Mary’s vast fortune, he squandered her wealth and embarked on a campaign of appalling violence and cruelty against his new bride. Finally, fearing for her life, Mary dared to plan an audacious escape and an even more courageous battle to reclaim her liberty and her fortune.
Based on meticulous archival research, Wedlock is a gripping, addictive biography, ripped from the headlines of eighteenth-century England.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
How did a wealthy, self-absorbed adulteress who despised her eldest son and aborted three pregnancies by a man she didn't love, transform into a devoted mother and pioneer of women's liberty? British author Moore (The Knife Man) examines this remarkable conversion in Mary Eleanor Bowes (1749 1800), England's richest heiress, whose impulsive marriage to a violent Irish fortune seeker revolutionized divorce in Georgian England. A published poet-playwright and accomplished botanist, Mary expected to live an indulgent life. Yet she was lured into marriage to army captain Andrew Robinson Stoney, who proved to be a rapist, liar, kidnapper and philanderer who half-starved and beat Mary into submission. Stoney's own best friend called him "inhuman and savage, without a countervailing quality." Moore offers a well-informed if dispiriting glimpse into 18th-century marriage and the patriarchal legal and church systems as experienced by Mary still her husband's property and financially supported by her devoted servants as she fought to regain her fortune, her children and, especially, her status as a person.