The Queen’s Favourites

As Queen Anne ascends the throne, real influence lies not with ministers but with the women who command the monarch's confidence. Sarah Churchill, Duchess of Marlborough, appears unassailable until her quiet cousin Abigail Masham enters the royal household. Their bitter struggle for Anne's favour unfolds alongside war in Europe and growing uncertainty over the future of the Protestant succession.

Jean Plaidy brings to life the politics of Queen Anne's court, where personal relationships shaped national policy as surely as debates in Parliament. Against the backdrop of the War of the Spanish Succession and the approaching end of the Stuart line, the novel reveals the complex character of Britain's last Stuart monarch.

This novel has also been published under the title Courting Her Highness.