1. An Uncommon Woman
This biography traces the life of Victoria, Princess Royal, the eldest daughter of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, from her British childhood to marriage with the future German emperor Frederick III. Intelligent, politically engaged and strongly influenced by her parents’ liberal ideals, she entered a Prussian…
2. Mary Queen of Scots
This biography follows Mary Stuart from her childhood as Queen of Scotland through her French marriage, return to Scotland, political isolation, imprisonment in England and execution. Fraser treats Mary as a dynastic ruler rather than simply as a romantic victim, setting her marriages, Catholic identity and…
3. The Warrior Queens
The Warrior Queens is a comparative history of women who exercised military or political authority in moments of conflict. Beginning with Boudica and moving through figures such as Cleopatra, Joan of Arc, Elizabeth I and later female leaders, Fraser examines how women in power were praised,…
4. The Six Wives of Henry VIII
This group biography studies Catherine of Aragon, Anne Boleyn, Jane Seymour, Anne of Cleves, Catherine Howard and Catherine Parr as individuals as well as wives of Henry VIII. Fraser places each marriage within Tudor dynastic politics, religious change, court faction and the king’s need for a…
5. The Weaker Vessel
The Weaker Vessel examines women’s lives in seventeenth-century England, using biography, legal history and social history to challenge the assumption that women were merely passive dependants. Fraser looks at marriage, widowhood, religion, property, work, political crisis and civil war through the experiences of aristocrats, radicals, writers,…
6. Cleopatra
This biography reconstructs Cleopatra VII as a Macedonian-Egyptian ruler operating in the final crisis of the Roman Republic. Fraser follows her struggle to preserve Ptolemaic power, her alliances with Julius Caesar and Mark Antony, and the propaganda that helped turn her into a symbol of seduction…
7. Mary Tudor
Mary Tudor is a biography of Mary I, England’s first crowned queen regnant. Fraser follows Mary from her position as the daughter of Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon through the succession crisis of 1553, her restoration of Catholic worship, her Spanish marriage and the burnings…
8. Trail Blazers
Trail Blazers profiles women who travelled, explored and worked beyond the boundaries conventionally set for them in their own societies. Through illustrated biographical sketches, Antonia Fraser follows journeys across seas, deserts, mountains and unfamiliar cultures, placing individual adventures beside the prejudices and practical obstacles the travellers…
9. Debs at War
An extraordinary account - from firsthand sources - of upper class women and the active part they took in the WarPre-war debutantes were members of the most protected, not to say isolated, stratum of 20th-century society: the young (17-20) unmarried daughters of the British upper classes.…
10. The Viceroy’s Daughters
Antonia Fraser traces the lives of Irene, Cynthia and Alexandra Curzon, the three daughters of George Curzon, Viceroy of India. After the early death of their American mother, the sisters grew up under a father determined to control their money, marriages and public conduct, even as…
11. Medieval Women
Medieval Women examines the lives of women in England across social ranks, from peasants and townspeople to aristocrats and religious women. Henrietta Leyser considers marriage, sexuality, motherhood, widowhood and work, showing how legal status and family structure affected women's choices at different stages of life. The…
12. Women in England 1760-1914
A rich and fresh survey of women's lives between George III and the First World WarUsing diaries, letters, memoirs as well as social and statistical research, this book looks at life-expectancy, sex, marriage and childbirth, and work inside and outside the home, for all classes of…
13. Women in England 1500-1760 (WOMEN in History)
Women in England 1500–1760 examines women’s lives from the Reformation to the early stages of industrial change. Anne Laurence draws on social and economic history to consider marriage, sexuality, childbirth, household authority, paid work and the different expectations imposed on women according to class and marital…
14. Personal History (WOMEN in History)
Katharine Graham’s memoir traces her life from a privileged but emotionally difficult childhood to her unexpected position at the head of the Washington Post. She describes her marriage to Philip Graham, his influence on the newspaper and national politics, and the mental illness that ended with…