Sarah, Duchess of Marlborough, was a woman with a "passion for government": a compulsion to wield power not only in her own family but in public affairs as well. The first complete scholarly biography of the Duchess, this book makes full use of recently available manuscript sources to tell the colorful story of a woman at the center of power, whose life spanned more than eighty years from the Restoration to the fall of Walpole. Harris sets Sarah's life and personal relationships in the context of her time, drawing a vivid portrait of a woman whose character and life are as fascinating and...

John Evelyn ranks with his friend Samuel Pepys as one of the best loved of English diarists. This is an absorbing new study of the most controversial episode of his life: his passionate "seraphic" friendship with Margaret Godolphin, a maid of honor at the Restoration court of Charles II. Set against the vivid background of the court and the great gardens of the time, Transformations of Love provides new insights into the sexual and spiritual worlds of early modern England.

A story of love and friendship between Captain-General John Churchill, Duke of Marlborough, the prime minister Sidney, Earl of Godolphin, and Marlborough's wife Sarah during the reign of Queen Anne. The book traces their role in the union of England and Scotland, and throws a new light on this formative period of British and European history.