Book description
Disgrace and Favour
is a novel of life on the Border in the dying years of Elizabeth I's
reign and of intrigue and immorality at the court of King James. It is
the story of the Queen's cousin, Sir Robert Carey, who was disgraced for
marrying without her consent, of his struggle to restore his fortunes
under her successor, and his realisation that favour among the hazards
of a decadent court was even less appealing than a hard but untrammelled
life in exile on the Border.
It is the story, too, of the hanging of Geordie Bourne; of the life and
death of Prince Henry, most gifted of the Stuarts; of Robert Carr, the
royal favourite who became the only first minister of a British monarch
to be convicted of murder; of Frances Howard, the beauty of the age and
twice a countess, on the state of whose maidenhead depended the
government of the country; of the mysterious poisoning of Sir Thomas
Overbury in the Tower of London, and the meteoric career of George Villiers.
Many of the other rich and bizarre characters of the age make an
appearance in these pages. They are headed by the awesome Queen who
terrorised her courtiers and the far from majestic king who united
Scotland and England and proclaimed himself God's Vice-regent on earth
but
displayed a strange variety of human weaknesses. Jeremy Potter served
the Richard III Society as Chairman from 1971-1989. During his
chairmanship, the Society launched several important initiatives,
including the commissioning of a heroic statue of Richard III (on
display in Castle Gardens, Leicester), the securing of royal patronage
from H. R.H. Richard Duke of Gloucester, and the broadcast of a trial of
Richard III, with Lord Elwyn-Jones, former Lord Chancellor, presiding.
During his tenure, the Society also became active in sponsoring the
publication of fifteenth-century source documents and works of current
scholarship on the period. It also created the Richard III and Yorkist
History Trust, which provides financial support for graduate study and
publishing. Potter was elected President of the Society at its Annual
General Meeting in London, October 4, 1997
