The current Prince of Wales, our future King, has married his mistress and she will become, barring an accident, our next Queen Consort. This is a unique situation and one that is unlikely to be repeated. Of course, only 70 years ago, his great uncle was in a not dissimilar predicament which cost him his throne.

Royal Sex shows how a certain number of key aristocratic families appear to have cornered the market in providing our monarchs with mistresses over successive centuries. The present Duchess of Cornwall is a prime example, her great-grandmother, Alice Keppel was a mistress of Edward VII, as the Duchess was of Prince Charles. The reason? To capture and exploit royal power & royal patronage to place a royal mistress or favourite at the centre of power.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Roger Powell has been a professional genealogist for over 40 years. He was until his recent retirement a senior editor at Burke’s Peerage and Gentry and Director of Debretts Ancestry Research. He was also a research assistant at the Royal College of Heralds. He is also related to the Duke of Monmouth, another bastard son of Charles II. He lives in Northamptonshire.