Wedlock: The True Story of the Disastrous Marriage and Remarkable Divorce of Mary Eleanor Bowes Countess of Strathmore

About this book

With the death of her fabulously wealthy coal magnate father when she was just eleven Mary Eleanor Bowes became the richest heiress in Britain. An ancestor of Queen Elizabeth II Mary grew to be a highly educated young woman winning acclaim as a playwright and botanist. Courted by a bevy of eager suitors at eighteen she married the handsome but aloof ninth Earl of Strathmore in a celebrated if ultimately troubled match that forged the Bowes Lyon name. Yet she stumbled headlong into scandal when following her husbands early death a charming young army hero flattered his way into the merry widows bed. Captain Andrew Robinson Stoney insisted on defending her honor in a duel and Mary was convinced she had found true love. Judged by doctors to have been mortally wounded in the melee Stoney persuaded Mary to grant his dying wish; four days later they were married. Sadly the captain was not what he seemed. Staging a sudden and remarkable recovery Stoney was revealed as a debt-ridden lieutenant a fraudster and a bully. Immediately taking control of Marys vast fortune he squandered her wealth and embarked on a campaign of appalling violence and cruelty against his new bride. Finally fearing for her life Mary masterminded an audacious escape and challenged social conventions of the day by launching a suit for divorce. The English public was horrifiedand enthralled. But Marys troubles were far from over . . . Novelist William Makepeace Thackeray was inspired by Stoneys villainy to write The Luck of Barry Lyndon which Stanley Kubrick turned into an Oscar-winning film. Based on exhaustive archival research Wedlock is a thrilling and cinematic true story ripped from the headlines of eighteenth-century England.