Disgrace and favour: A novel of Tudor and Stuart times

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 15th-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.