Blood Royal

The Spencers, like the Windsors, are a dynasty-one of the most successful families that England has produced. But how did a family of Tudor sheep farmers reach the ranks of the upper aristocracy by the time of the Restoration? The Spencers have quietly adapted from one generation to the next, sweeping up heiresses and magnificent estates, buying great libraries and art-then building London's most beautiful Palladian mansion to house them. The Spencers were also virtuosi of a particular art of prime importance to any aristocracy-the art of dynastic marriage. This is the story of how the Spencers attained their power, how they wielded it, and the bitter twist of fate by which they finally achieved their greatest dynastic marriage of all in 1981-the union of Diana Spencer with Charles Mountbatten Windsor.