Contents
PART ONE
ASCENDANCY: 1066–1603
1 A Game of Dice: The Growth of Aristocratic Power
2 Manners with Virtue: The Cult of Chivalry and the Culture of the Aristocracy
3 Their Plenty was Our Scarcity: Resistance
4 Weeds Which Must Be Mown Down: The Wars of the Roses 1450–87
5 As a True Knight: Honour and Violence and the Wars of the Roses
6 In Foolish Submission: Irish and Scottish Aristocracies
7 Obeyed and Looked Up To: The Tudors and Their Lords
8 Stir Up Your Fame: A New Breed of Noblemen
PART TWO
EQUILIBRIUM: 1603–1815
9 I Honour the King as Much as I Love Parliament: The Road to Civil War
10 A Circular Motion: Revolution and Restoration 1642–60
11 Signal Deliverances: Restoration 1660–85
12 The People Assembled and Freely Chose Them: The Glorious Revolution and After
13 I’ll Share the Fate of My Prince: Jacobites
14 Magnificence: Grand Houses and Grand Tours
15 Public Character: The Aristocratic Century 1714–1815
16 A Fair Kingdom: Fame, Taste and Fashion
17 We Come for Pheasants: Peers and Poachers
18 A Gang of Ruffians: Americans and Aristocracy
19 The Aristocrat to Quell: Peers, Patriots and Paineites 1789–1815
20 Rats: Crisis and Compromise
21 Thoroughbred: Sport and Manliness
22 The Surrender of Feudalism to Industry: The Mid-Victorian Peerage 1846–87
23 Revolvers Prominently Displayed: The Downfall of the Irish Aristocracy
24 Like Chaff Before Us: Hanging On 1887–1914
25 Dangers and Honours: War, Empire and the Aristocracy
26 Always Keep Hold of Nurse: Aristocratic Twilight