_Stuart Spouses_ looks at the oft-overshadowed consorts of the Stuart monarchs, from 1406 to 1714\. By focusing on these people and detailing their rises to matrimony, the trials and tribulations of their courtships, and the impact their unions and dissolutions had on the kingdoms of Scotland, England, Ireland, and Wales, one learns not only the history of these kingdoms but the true, sometimes soft, power behind the throne.