The Cravens by Clive Williams - book review
Clive Williams, author of a previous book about the history of Berkshire, The Nabobs of Berkshire , has now written The Cravens , a history of the entire Craven family. He traces it from its first rise to wealth in the Tudor period, to its glory days under the Stuarts and Hanoverians, when Craven earls and barons were among the greatest landowners in Berkshire and among the richest peers in Britain, through to the decline of their fortunes in the twentieth century. The Cravens' London house 16, Charles Street, Mayfair Williams has put a lot of research into this book, which has many illustrations, and draws on many documents. He tracks down the sources of the wealth that made William, the first Earl Craven under King Charles I, such a powerful player in the wars of the time and in politics at home and abroad. It seems that the financial acumen of his mother was a major factor. Craven volunteered at the age of sixteen to go to the ...