courts and courtiers

"In 1660, the Restoration of Stuart Monarchy in England returns Frances Stuart and her family to favor. Frances discards threadbare gowns and goes to gilded Fontainebleau Palace, where she soon catches the Sun King's eye. But Frances is no ordinary court beauty--she has Stuart secrets to keep and her family to protect. King Louis XIV turns vengeful when she rejects his offer to become his Official Mistress. He sends her to England with orders to seduce King Charles II and help him form an alliance with England. The Queen Mother likewise orders Frances to become her son's mistress, in the interest of luring him away from the Protestant mistress he currently keeps. Armed in pearls and silk, Frances maneuvers the political turbulence of Whitehall Palace, but still can't afford to stir a scandal, determined to keep her family from shame. Her tactic to inspire King Charles to greatness captivates him and the two embark on a tenuous relationship. Frances survives the Great Fire, the Great Plague, and the debauchery of the Restoration Court, yet loses her heart to the very king she must control. A startling discovery will leave her with no other choice but to break his heart, while the fate of England hangs in the balance. In the tradition of Philippa Gregory, debut author Marci Jefferson brings to life a captivating woman whose beauty, compassion, and intellect impacted a king and a nation"--.

Michael Deven, working for spymaster Francis Walsingham thirty years into the reign of Queen Elizabeth, falls in love with Anne Montrose, a lady who serves at Hampton Court Palace, not realizing she is really Lady Lune, an unwilling servant to Invidiana, the faerie queen who rules the dark and unseen world of Onyx Court with the complete knowledge and cooperation of the Tudor monarch.

In 1539, Kitty Tylney and her best friend Cat Howard--the audacious, self-proclaimed "Queen of Misrule"--both servants to the Duchess of Norfolk, move to the court of King Henry VIII, who fancies Cat, and when Cat becomes queen, Kitty must learn to navigate the complexities and dangers of the royal court.

With the rampant slaughter of Huguenots at its peak and her beloved Marquis Fabien away on a privateering voyage, Rachelle Dusbane-Macquinet, a couturiere from one of France's foremost silk making families, welcomes the summons to return to Catherine de Medici's court and the opportunity to spy on the evil queen.

Rachelle Macquinet, a couturiere from one of France's most celebrated silk-making families, struggles to keep her eyes on God when Queen Mother Catherine de Medici tries to implicate her beloved husband Fabien in an assassination plot.

Rachelle Dusbane-Macquinet accompanies her grandmother, a famous couturiere, to Paris to create a silk trousseau for the Royal Princess Marguerite Valois, and becomes caught up in the intrigue at the Court, risking her life to warn the handsome Marquis Fabien de Vendome of a wicked plot against his family concocted by the regent, Catherine de Medici.

An annotated edition of Shakespeare's comedy about Spanish courtiers who unsuccessfully swear off relationships with women; also includes essays on Shakespeare's theatrical world and his texts, and a scholarly introduction.

The orphaned daughter of Katherine Parr and Henry VIII, sixteen-year-old Mary Seymour vies to gain acceptance and fend off her jealous relatives and castle-mates as she enters into Queen Elizabeth's court.

Eighteen-year-old vampire princess Jessica Packwood is in for the fight of her life -- and her husband's -- when Lucius is accused of a horrible crime and Jessica, trying to prove herself worthy of the throne, faces betrayal by those closest to her.

A girl is transformed, through instruction in life at court, determination, and magic, from sullen, pudgy, graceless Ben into Crown Princess Benevolence, a fit ruler of the Kingdom of Montagne as it faces war with neighboring Drachensbett.