Alice Spencer, the youngest daughter of a wealthy farmer, was just another building block in the Spencer dynasty, but the marriage that made her the Countess of Derby was just the start of her spectacular rise through the ranks of Tudor England.
This book answered a very important question that’s been bothering me for a very long time: Why did medieval aristocrats splash around so much money on frivolous luxuries? I knew the answer had something to do with amassing power and influence, but it’s only in this book that I finally saw firsthand what kind of power and influence those frivolous luxuries could buy, and how.
I never heard of Alice Spencer before, but the brief description of her that we started with intrigued me, and as I read on I grew impressed with how she was able to move within the existing strictures of society to advance her family’s goals. Wilkie does a good job breaking down exactly the tactics she used, contextualizing them adeptly and showing why they worked. And there was enough intrigue and drama in the major incidents of Alice’s life to keep me engaged throughout.
However, while I enjoyed the broader perspective the book took to really show us how the family worked together to boost their status and reputation, I did feel that it left me less acquainted with Alice herself than I would have liked. Because her presence is not obvious in some of the major incidents discussed in this book – the Hesketh plot and Anne Stanley’s sexual assault specifically – and because much of Alice’s everyday life was not well-documented, it ended up a bit of an unevenly paced read.
Disclaimer: I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley. This is my honest and voluntary review.
