"William's Wife" is the tenth in the "Queens of England" series and concerns Mary, daughter of James II and wife of William of Orange. Her early days with her indulgent parents, her devoted sister, Anne, and her girlish friendships were exceptionally happy, and although she was brought up in one of the most licentious courts in Europe, she was innocent, unworldly and quite unprepared for the shocks to come. Her very special relationship with her father, which had given them both such joy, was to prove a torment to her throughout her life. In line to the throne, Mary was a very desirable wife an ambitious man whose heart was set on the crown of England, and it was expedient for Mary to marry the Prince of Orange. She was torn from her happy home to go to a foreign country with a strange, dour husband. There, she gradually learned that she must forget she was James' daughter and become William's wife. Among those who accompanied her was the devious Elizabeth Villiers, whom she had never trusted and who was to give her much cause for anguish in the years ahead. Life in Holland was very different from that in England.
There was no indulgent father to shelter her; and it was clear that the cold man she had married had little interest in her beyond the crown which she could bring him. There was only Anne Trelawny and the women she had brought with her from England to comfort her. Intrigue and the discovery of Elizabeth Villiers' position at the Court of The Hague shocked her so deeply that she was stung into retaliation but soon realised that she was no match for the wily Elizabeth. Trouble in England meant that her father's throne was in jeopardy. Conflict inevitably arose and Mary was at the heart of it between the two protagonists, her father and her husband. The crown of England was the prize and Mary had to make a choice. She was James' daughter, but first of all she was William's wife.
- ISBN10 0006472990
- ISBN13 9780006472995
- Publish Date 7 February 1994 (first published 31 October 1992)
- Publish Status Out of Print
- Out of Print 11 April 1996
- Publish Country GB
- Publisher HarperCollins Publishers
- Imprint HarperCollins Publishers Ltd
- Edition New edition
- Format Paperback
- Pages 288
- Language English
- URL http://harpercollins.co.uk