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

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.