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 husband's early death, a charming young army hero flattered his
way into the merry widow's 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
Mary's 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 horrified-and enthralled.
But Mary's troubles were far from over . . .
Novelist William Makepeace Thackeray was inspired by Stoney's
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.
"From the Hardcover edition."
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