The Graces : The Extraordinary Untold Lives of Women at the Restoration Court, Breeze Barrington

A spellbinding work of history that uncovers the inner lives and work of Maria of Modena and her graces, the extraordinary women who practiced art, poetry and politics within the misogyny of the Restoration court. In 1673, fifteen-year-old Maria dEste travelled from Italy to marry James, Duke of York, the future King of England and a man twenty-five years her senior. Thrust from a pious life on the path to become a nun, at the debauched court of Charles II she set about recreating the world shed left behind a world where women were highly educated, exercised power and celebrated art and artists with concentrated patronage.

The Graces resurrects the life of Maria, later Mary of Modena, and those of the extraordinary young women she surrounded herself with at the Restoration court. From Sarah Jennings, later Sarah Churchill, keen politician and favourite of Queen Anne, to revered poet Anne Finch and founder of legendary literary salon Hortense Mancini, these were women who defied the conventions of their time and the forces of misogyny working against them. The era they lived through would be one of the most tumultuous England had seen: one where parliament would invite a foreign power in the form of William of Orange to invade England, depose its king, and risk thrusting the country back into civil war.

What is much less well-known is that within this world existed another: a world of female friendship, learning and artistic endeavour. The Graces is that story.