One of the foremost hostesses of the Victorian era, Caroline Norton dazzled 19th-century Britain with her vivacity and her poetry. Racked with jealousy, Caroline's husband, MP George Norton, took Prime Minister Lord Melbourne to court, suing him on a charge of adultery. As Antonia Fraser explains here, the case was dismissed, but Caroline—attempting to separate from her husband—was not allowed to see her children. Choosing to fight, Caroline took her protest all the way to Queen Victoria, and this history traces her remarkable triumph in the name of maternal rights.