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The story of Catholic Emancipation begins with the violent Anti-Catholic Gordon Riots in 1780, fuelled by the reduction in Penal Laws against the Roman Catholics harking back to the sixteenth century. Some fifty years later, the passing of the Emancipation Act was hailed as a 'bloodless revolution'.
Antonia Fraser brings colour and wit to the vivid drama, set in both England and Ireland, with its huge cast of characters: George III, who opposed Emancipation on the basis of the Coronation Oath; his indulgent son, the Prince of Wales, later George IV, who was once secretly married to the Catholic Maria Fitzherbert; the Duke of Wellington and Robert Peel, who both changed their minds on the subject, to the horror of the Tories; and the heroic Daniel O'Connell representing Ireland.