Was there a scandal? Yes, and it continued for years. Did it happen during a really gosh darn interesting time? Yes. Did it give the reader a view of what it was like to be a noble woman in that era, your money was his money and his money was his money? Oh yes. Did it show some of the shenanigans courtiers would get up to in order to push their agenda ahead? Definitely.

Did I ever feel like I had a grasp of Frances Coke Villers, Viscountess of Purbeck really was? No, there just wasn't enough information out there, personal letters and the like, for the author to pull a complete picture of her together.

Still, it was a really great look at the England of that time, so I don't feel cheated.

This is a very detailed book about the life of Frances Coke Villiers and her family. First off, too much time was spent on Frances' parents' lives. I realize it is helpful to offer some history, but I felt this book spent too much time on their dysfunctional relationship. They needed their own book. Second off, there were too many people named Frances. I realize this isn't the author's fault and she even began to refer to the subject as "our Frances." But, my biggest problem with the book was that we never really got to know Frances herself. We learned what she did and what people did to her but there were no diary quotes, no confessional letters, etc, with which to draw a picture of how she felt about all of this. So while I gave this book 3 stars as it is a good portrayal of her life, I would think an author would require personal sources in order to write a book like this.

I enjoyed this book. I am a huge lover of this time period, so was very excited to dig into this book. While I found the beginning a tad tedious, it was at the same time a very informative (and even humorous, at times) read that kept me interested and taught me much.

Despite the rather luridly enticing title, this is a sober, well-researched biography of Francis Coke Villiers. Luthman has done a fine job of unearthing Francis from the archives, and from under the shadow of her brother-in-law, George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham.

Married to Buckingham's older brother by her parents, Francis moves in the court circles of James I and Charles I, and her story intersects of some of the better-known personalities of the time. Her own tale of arranged marriage, extra-marital love and illegitimate offspring isn't an unfamiliar one but deserves to be retold.

Interesting social history with a purchase on women's lives in the later Renaissance.