The History of Henry Esmond

Set in the reign of Queen Anne Thackeray's novel follows the troubled progress of Henry Esmond Esq a gentleman and an officer in Marlborough's army. Enamoured of the Jacobite Lady Castlewood and her wayward daughter Beatrix he distinguishes himself in Marlborough's campaigns against Louis XIV but comes to grief in an ingenious but ultimately unsuccessful attempt to despose George I in favour of the Old Pretender. He continues to wrestle with an emotional allegiance to the Old Tory-Catholic England until disillusioned he comes eventually to terms with the whiggish-Protestant future.