Love, Madness & Scandal The Life of Frances Coke Villiers Viscountess Purbeck by Johanna Luthmann

Love, Madness & Scandal The Life of Frances Coke Villiers Viscountess Purbeck by Johanna Luthmann will keep you intrigued 'till the end of this fascinating real life-story of intrigue, love, betrayal, scandal.

Looking at the picture-cover of this book published by Oxford University Press Frances Coke Villiers appears with a spark of malice in her eyes, but the painting gives also the imagine of a young, discreet girl, I would add a bit worried.
You wouldn't never think for a second that opening this book you would find a story like the one you will read.

Frances Coke Villiers was a girl of noble origin born in 1602 and his family had great connections with the King as well. Like most of noble kids she grew up following the standard education of that age. Good schools appropriate for girls and once a teenager, trips to Europe for discovering the Continent appreciating the beauty of other places.

Her wedding with Sir John Villiers was of course wanted by her family, and by King James I. This one, Sir John was a great party for her.

The wedding wasn't the celebration of love at all and Frances didn't know that her groom would have soon developed also a strange mental illness with which the groom coped for all his life.
Substantially this mental illness was bipolarity, but when the symptoms more insisting, John Villiers wasn't a subject you would have wanted to have around. For this reason and for being cured well, he left their house leaving Frances alone.

Frances was young and romantic and very soon started to appreciate, while her husband was somewhere else sick, the friendship of Sir Robert Howard. The man pretty soon conquered the heart of the girl and the two started an intense, felt, love-story, "involving" also in this story the various servants of the houses where they lived their transgression and their memorable moments of joy.
Happiness, we all know is volatile and pretty soon Frances discovered she was waiting.
Yes: a baby!

Now: what to do?

The poor husband John Villiers, once cured by his mental illness was pretty shocked by all this turmoil. Returning to the normality  pretty stressing.
Let's imagine he was upset when discovered that his wife didn't cry too much during his absence but had some fun with someone else and the trace was the arrival of a baby!

There's to add that British noblemen and noblewomen don't mind at all for "bastard babies" living them very well and so the centrality of the aspect wasn't the baby at all but the betrayal, and for Frances and her lover these moments lived with this guideline: "Always Deny." The two lovers won't admit their relationship. Also when there was the evidence of a baby.

But so: if Howard didn't have any sexual intercourse with Frances, who impregnated Frances? Frances said her husband although the husband physically absent for two years. Confusion dominated the trial.

The trial brought to conviction and although Frances' husband disappeared soon the problems for Frances never sorted out with simplicity...

It's a beautiful, very readable, wonderful, stunning, intriguing, funny at some point, book this one by Oxford University Press and I am more than sure that you will love this book and the story of Frances Coke Villiers exactly as I do.

I thank Oxford University Press for the physical copy of this book.


Anna Maria Polidori