Mary Eleanor Bowes was the richest heiress in 18th-century Britain. Married at 18 to John Lyon, the 9th Earl of Strathmore, she was great-great-great-great-grandmother of Queen Elizabeth II. But when her husband died and left her with five children she fell under the spell of a charming Irish soldier, Andrew Robinson Stoney. When Mary heard her gallant hero was mortally wounded in a duel she felt she could hardly refuse when he asked her to marry him. Yet within hours of the wedding Stoney underwent a miraculous recovery and Mary found herself trapped in a brutal marriage. Wedlock tells the remarkable true story of Mary's triumph and revenge.

'The best biography that I have read in a long time. It's gripping ... addictive'

Mail on Sunday