Title: Ladies in Waiting
Subtitle: from the Tudors to the present day
First published: 1984
Description: [From Amazon]

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
Subjects: England, Courts and courtiers, Ladies-in-waiting, Royalty, Biography, Court and courtiers, Great Britain, Nobility, History, Geschichte (1485-1984), Hofdame, Great britain, history, modern period, 1485-, Great britain, court and courtiers
Places: Great Britain, England, France
Time periods: Modern period, 1485-