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A Personal History of an English Family
St. Martin's Press
September 2000
On Sale: September 1, 2000
350 pages
ISBN: 0312266499
EAN: 9780312266493
Hardcover
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Non-Fiction Biography
Best known in recent history for Lady Diana Spencer, who
became the Princess of Wales when she married Prince
Charles
in 1981, the Spencer family has had close ties to English
royalty for at least 500 years. Indeed, Diana's
grandfather
claimed that "the word Spencer derives from the Norman
word
for Steward, or Head of Household: 'Despenser,'" and that
their ancestor was steward to the household of William
the
Conqueror in 1066. While historians have debated both
sides
of this particular family legend, it is indisputable that
from the early 16th century Diana's forebears had moved
beyond their origins as sheep farmers to forge intimate
connections with the English court. In addition to
generations of Spencer barons, earls, and dukes, there
were
politicians and poets, courtiers and clerics, soldiers
and
scoundrels. There was an earlier Lady Diana Spencer, who
nearly married the Prince of Wales in 1730 and who, like
the
modern Diana, died tragically young. Sir Winston
Churchill
was a Spencer; for generations his family name was
hyphenated as Spencer-Churchill. The history of the
family
is alive with many other fascinating characters: from
Henry
Spencer, who gave Charles I the astonishing sum of
£10,000
on the eve of the Civil War; through the scandalous
society
beauty Georgiana Devonshire, daughter of the first
Countess
Spencer, who sold her kisses for votes in favor of
Charles
James Fox; to George John, the Second Earl, owner of the
greatest private library in Europe and patron of Horatio
Nelson. In many ways the story of the Spencer
family
is really the story of England-or at least of the English
aristocracy. Using archives and documents previously
unavailable and incorporating his personal experiences of
the family, Charles Spencer offers a fascinating, rich,
and
illuminating social history.
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