Blood Royal: The Story of the Spencers and the Royals - Softcover

‘Pearson makes light work of some heavy-duty history. He manages to make Diana’s riveting ancestors more so by showing how each bequeathed her the qualities she needed in the hostile, unappreciative world of the Windsors.’
Anthony Holden, Sunday Express

The tragic death of Diana, Princess of Wales, left an indelible mark on the nation. Diana also left her mark on the family of Windsor: her Spencer genes. Blood Royal is the story of the crucial role the Spencer blood will play in the monarchy’s future.

The Spencers dynasty is one of the most successful families that England has produced. But how did a family of Tudor sheep farmers from Northamptonshire reach the ranks of the upper aristocracy by the time of the Restoration, and how did they then continue to consolidate their great position at the apex of society through the eighteenth and the nineteenth centuries?

The Spencers have quietly adapted from one generation to the next, sweeping up heiresses and magnificent estates, buying great libraries and creating art collections, then building London’s most beautiful palladian mansion to house them. Family characteristics emerge, as do family traditions and attitudes to life. And, by the zenith of the eighteenth century, almost everyone who is anyone in politics seems to be related to this overwhelming family.

Blood Royal is the story of how the Spencers gained their power, how they used it, and the bitter twist of fate by which they finally achieved their grandest dynastic marriage of all in 1981 – the union of Diana Spencer with Charles Mountbatten Windsor, Prince of Wales.