“The Mistresses of Cliveden: Three Centuries of Scandal, Power, and Intrigue in an English Stately Home”, by Natalie Livingstone

512 pages, Ballantine Books, ISBN-13: 978-0553392074

The Mistresses of Cliveden: Three Centuries of Scandal, Power, and Intrigue in an English Stately Home by Natalie Livingstone (the current mistress of Cliveden) is well-titled, as the emphasis of this book is on the lives of six different women who made this English pile their home – it is NOT, I must stress, a history of Cliveden, an English stately home that has been the scene of much English history since it was built by the Duke of Buckingham for his mistress in the 1600s. Oh, there are details aplenty about the place, sure, but this is a social and not an architectural history, so keep that in mind when you crack the spine. In her introduction, Livingstone encapsulates Cliveden as “an emblem of elite misbehavior and intrigue” for 300 years, with her particular focus being on five notable women who were the mistresses of Cliveden during those three centuries:

• Anna Maria Talbot, Countess of Shrewsbury (née Lady Anna Maria Brudenell) by virtue of her marriage to Francis Talbot, 11^th Earl of Shrewsbury…who was killed by her lover, George Villiers, 2^nd Duke of Buckingham, in a duel over the fair (?)Anna Maria. 
• Elizabeth Hamilton, Countess of Orkney (née Elizabeth Villiers) by virtue of her marriage to Field Marshal George Hamilton, 1^st Earl of Orkney, and before that the reputed mistress of William III, King of England and Scotland, from 1680 until 1695, when she was a lady-in-waiting to his wife and co-monarch, Queen Mary II.
• Princess Augusta of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg, Princess of Wales by virtue of her marriage to Frederick, Prince of Wales and who was one of only four Princesses of Wales who never became queen consort as her eldest son succeeded her father-in-law as George III of the United Kingdom in 1760 rather than Frederick, who had died nine years earlier.
• Harriet Elizabeth Georgiana Sutherland-Leveson-Gower, Duchess of Sutherland (née Howard) by virtue of her marriage to George Granville Sutherland-Leveson-Gower, 2^nd Duke of Sutherland, and Mistress of the Robes and great friend of Queen Victoria who was also an important figure in London’s high society and used her social position to undertake various philanthropic undertakings including the protest of the English ladies against American slavery.
• Nancy Witcher Langhorne Astor, Viscountess Astor by virtue of her marriage to Waldorf Astor, 2^nd Viscount Astor, an American citizen who moved to England at age 26 and made a second marriage to Waldorf Astor as a young woman in England, where the first female Member of Parliament to take her seat.

None of these women were really alike, and Livingstone’s lively and very readable style makes each sound like a wholly-formed person and not just an appendage of a husband or lover. She gracefully blends the personal lives of her leading ladies with important events of their day and the architecture and interior design of the estate itself. The house at Cliveden was built for controversy, and Livingstone gives us the colorful history of the house; quite deliberately and tangentially, we also get a unique view of British history through the eyes of the influential women who resided there. And make no mistake, these women, though officially powerless, wielded their unofficial power like rapiers. This is "Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous" from the 17^th to 20^th Centuries as the wealthy and powerful denizens of the house seem to be constantly embroiled with politics, mixed up with royalty, and often misbehaving in a grand fashion. Twice burnt down and rebuilt, the house still stands grandly, a monument to the triumphs and follies of its owners and a magnificent example of a great English Country House.