Bøger af Karen Proudler

In 1684 a battle took place between two notorious figures in London over who had the best claim to a large part of Shadwell. Thomas Neale was a man-about-town and master of the King's gaming tables; his opponent was Lady Ivie, an aristocratic heiress who had gained notoriety in a fight for alimony with her estranged husband, during which contest the sordid and salacious details of her disastrous marriage had been publicly aired. In a trial presided over by Hanging Judge Jeffreys, Ivie (the veritable Queen of Wapping who already possessed over 800 properties) challenged Neale for an area of land larger than the City of London. The stakes were high, very high. To the victor the spoils. The trial generated great public interest because, in a puritanical age where demur and pious women were cherished, Ivie's aggressive and audacious pursuit of land made her exceptional and, for that alone, men were scathing of her. Fashionable attitudes towards women, with a husband's superiority over his wife enshrined in law, meant a 'humbling' of Lady Ivie was the only outcome that would satisfy public expectation, at least the male half of it. This is the story of what led up to the trial and the aftermath - from previously unpublished sources.

Among those drawn to the bustling Port of London in the Tudor era was a German merchant called Thomas Stepkin. He settled his family just east of the Tower of London, near Wapping Marsh, and became beer brewer to Henry VIII. This is the story of what became of Thomas and the Stepkin estate he founded.

Lady Ivie was one of the most notorious women of the 17th century. An accidental heiress who rose to become the Queen of Wapping with designs on neighbouring Shadwell too. She was called a forger, serial litigant, seducer, poisoner and even murderer. So many names for a woman who was an enigma. But was she a villain, or simply a woman victimised by those men she challenged? Researched entirely from unpublished material, this book tells her story for the first time and answers the question of who Lady Ivie really was.

Bladens arrived in Dublin, from South Derbyshire, in the mid 1620s and quickly established themselves, and their business, amongst the mainly English Protestant settlers based in the city. For many years they were the sole book-sellers and held the monopoly on official printing. William Bladen also held office as an Alderman and Mayor and, from his business premises in Castle Street, was well placed to seek sanctuary for his family inside Dublin Castle walls when Rebellion broke out in 1641. This book is a collection of notes and records of those early Bladens and describes their journey from Derbyshire to Dublin and William's letters from 1641-42 describe life for the family under siege.

'Frances of Scarthingwell' is an account of the turbulent life of Frances Bladen, a Protestant woman who married William Hammond of Scarthingwell, the eldest son and heir of a leading Yorkshire Catholic family. In the last years of the 17th century, not long after the Popish Plot and the exclusion crisis had exposed deep rooted suspicions of Catholics, there were many obstacles and prejudices to mixed marriages. Religion, however, was only one of the difficulties Frances faced as her husband's profligate lifestyle and the complete breakdown of his family relations presented Herculean challenges.