Duke Hamilton is Dead!: A Story of Aristocratic Life and Death in Stuart Britain

By Victor Stater

Book Overview

Politics and society in an aristocratic world--as seen in the dramatic story of a notorious duel. On the morning of November 15, 1712, two of Britain's most important peers, the fourth Baron Mohun and the fourth Duke of Hamilton, met in Hyde Park. In a flurry of brutal swordplay that lasted perhaps two minutes, both fell mortally wounded. For months afterward, the kingdom was in a uproar, for the duel had occurred at a moment of grave political crisis. Whigs and Tories, increasingly desperate over the future as Queen Anne neared death, hurled charges of political murder and treasonous plotting against one another. Charge and countercharge filled the press as the social and moral crises mounted. Using the famous Mohun-Hamilton duel as a focal point, Victor Stater re-creates the desperate aristocratic world of late-seventeenth- and early-eighteenth-century Britain. Mohun and Hamilton stood at opposite ends of a bitterly divided political spectrum, but politics was not the only cause of their quarrel. A decade-long battle over a disputed inheritance was a crucial element, and Stater shows how, amid the luxury and ostentation of the aristocratic lifestyle, something very like moral anarchy reigned. The result is a stunning narrative of life and death in a tumultuous time, an era in which incivility and moral turpitude ruled beneath a thin veneer of aristocratic manners.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0809040352
• ISBN13: 9780809040353
• Release Date: May 2000
• Publisher: Hill and Wang
• Length: 288 Pages
• Weight: 0.80 lbs.
• Dimensions: 7.5" x 1.0" x 5.0"

Customer Reviews

Politics are for the Rich

Victor Stater, the author of "Duke Hamilton is Dead," writes with a peppy affection for his subject, which is ostensibly, the legal calumnies of two peers of the realm, fighting it out over a hefty inheritence. But Mr. Stater goes beyond the legal intricacies by throwing in a wealth of rich social and anecedotal material about a period in British history that has always seemed a bit tame -- the later years of the Stuart dynasty. With merry Charles II gone, and his Catholic brother James II forced off the throne, the late 17th and early 18th century Britons were ruled by the rather dull William and Mary, and then Mary's unfortunate sister Anne (who bore over a dozen children, only one of whom survived, and that one, a severally handicapped child, died at 11). Mr. Stater makes this era come alive through the framework of the contentiousness of the Earl of Mohun and the Duke of Hamilton, both striving for political power, both intriguers and both dead set on paying for their political ambitions with a disputed inheritence. All in all, a lively look at the period with a wealth of juicy details. But the foremost lesson to be learned here is that, whether it be 1700 or 2000, politics is still a game reserved for the very wealthy.

Great mix of social and political history

This is a great story of a decades long feud that spans (and influences) events such as the Golden Revolution, the Union of Scotland and England and the Restoration. Using the conflict between Baron Mohun and Duke Hamilton as a base, the author explores the changing nature of the aristocratic lifestyle and the British social stucture. The political infighting between Tories and Whigs in the larger international context was particularly fascinating. While the narrative flow is generally solid, I was lost for a bit in the second chapter that covers the history of a property at the center of the feud. In addition, the numerous names an aristocrat could use made for some confusion. That being said, the book is overall readable and quite entertaining.