Download or read book Ladies in Waiting written by Anne Somerset and published by Booksales. This book was released on 2004 with total page 378 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Far from being servants or decorative accessories in court, ladies-in-waiting competed for real positions of power--and many succeeded in their goals, sometimes betraying their queens in the process. A few even became royal mistresses, such as the rapacious Lady Castlemaine who amassed a fortune and flaunted her hold over King Charles I. Drawing on a wide variety of primary sources, including the diaries of such shrewd onlookers as Lady Cowper and Fanny Burney, bestselling author Anne Somerset provides a guide to the character, profligate or pious, of each court. This lively combination of entertaining anecdote and searching analysis is social history at its most colorful. .,."provides a wealth of juicy anecdotal material..."--"The New York Times"