White Knights, Dark Earls: The Rise and Fall of an Anglo-Irish Dynasty

Power, Bill

ISBN 10: 1898256942 / ISBN 13: 9781898256946

Published by The Collins Press, Cork, 2001

About this Item

Foreword by William Trevor. About the King family who married into the Fentons, sole heir to the White Knight title, in the 1650's. The story is taken into the late 20th century, though Mitchelstown Castle was burnt in 1922 and the family left the area. The author Anthony Trollope was based in nearby Mallow in 1848 when working with the Post Office and set his novel Castle Richmond in the area. Elements of Mitchelstown Castle may be found in the three great houses featured in the novel. Did Trollope draw on the King family for his portrayal of the Desmonds? A bright, tightly bound copy. No creasing on spine.

Seller Inventory # 003521

Bibliographic Details

• Title: White Knights, Dark Earls: The Rise and Fall of an Anglo-Irish Dynasty
• Publisher: The Collins Press, Cork
• Publication Date: 2001
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1898256942
• ISBN 13: 9781898256946
• Binding: Soft cover
• Condition: Very Good

About this title

Synopsis

Where did Mary Wollstonecraft, mother of Mary Shelley, have one, if not two affairs? Where was one of G.B. Shaw's favourite houses in Ireland? Where did the agriculturalist Arthur Young work as a land agent? Where did young William Claridge work as undercook? These and other well-known figures - Napoleon Bonaparte, George IV, Anna Parnell, William Gladstone, Sir Edward Carson and William O'Brien enliven this absorbing family history.
The White Knights took possession of huge estates around Mitchelstown, County Cork, in the fourteenth century. In the 1650s, Sir John King married Catherine Fenton, sole heir of the last White Knight. For the next 250 years Mitchelstown was home to the Kings - barons and earls of Kingston. The family built great houses and towns, and included scholars, soldiers and lunatics among its ranks. Their wealth made them one of the most influential dynasties in Ireland.