Historical
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Queens of the Age of Chivalry: England's Medieval Queens, Volume Three
Packed with dramatic true stories from one of European history's most romantic and turbulent eras, this epic narrative chronicles the five vividly rendered queens of the Plantagenet kings who ruled England between 1299 and 1399.
The Age of Chivalry describes a period of medieval history dominated by the social, religious, and moral code of knighthood that prized noble deeds, military greatness, and the game of courtly love between aristocratic men and women. It was also a period of high drama in English history, which included the toppling of two kings, the Hundred Years War, the Black Death, and the Peasants' Revolt. Feudalism was breaking down, resulting in social and political turmoil.
Against this dramatic milieu, Alison Weir describes the lives and reigns of five queen consorts: Marguerite of France was seventeen when she became the second wife of sixty-year-old King Edward I. Isabella of France, later known as "the She-Wolf," dethroned her husband, Edward II, and ruled England with her lover. In contrast, Philippa of Hainault was a popular queen to the deposed king's son Edward III. Anne of Bohemia was queen to Richard II, but she died young and childless. Isabella of Valois became Richard's second wife when she was only six years old, but was caught up in events when he was violently overthrown.
This was a turbulent and brutal age, despite its chivalric color and ethos, and it stands as a vivid backdrop to the extraordinary stories of these queens' lives.
The Age of Chivalry describes a period of medieval history dominated by the social, religious, and moral code of knighthood that prized noble deeds, military greatness, and the game of courtly love between aristocratic men and women. It was also a period of high drama in English history, which included the toppling of two kings, the Hundred Years War, the Black Death, and the Peasants' Revolt. Feudalism was breaking down, resulting in social and political turmoil.
Against this dramatic milieu, Alison Weir describes the lives and reigns of five queen consorts: Marguerite of France was seventeen when she became the second wife of sixty-year-old King Edward I. Isabella of France, later known as "the She-Wolf," dethroned her husband, Edward II, and ruled England with her lover. In contrast, Philippa of Hainault was a popular queen to the deposed king's son Edward III. Anne of Bohemia was queen to Richard II, but she died young and childless. Isabella of Valois became Richard's second wife when she was only six years old, but was caught up in events when he was violently overthrown.
This was a turbulent and brutal age, despite its chivalric color and ethos, and it stands as a vivid backdrop to the extraordinary stories of these queens' lives.
Editorial Reviews
Praise for Queens of the Crusades: England's Medieval Queens, Book Two
"This meticulous group biography . . . brushes away long-standing legends. . . . [Alison] Weir skillfully documents the political, religious, and cultural issues of medieval England and France."-Publishers Weekly
"Aimed at the general reader, this rich and robust account will appeal to readers interested in medieval England and some of its most fascinating royal women, whose stories are often left out of the history books."-Booklist
"Queens of the Crusades [is Weir's] latest in an impressive canon of more than two dozen historical biographies and novels. . . . [A] brilliant, compelling and meticulously detailed revelation . . . In its abundant detail about real lives lived amid the broad political strokes of medieval kings, Queens of the Crusades captures a rich sensory impression of how five brilliant yet fallible women managed their subject societies in a precarious and dangerously changeable world."-Bookreporter
"The latest massively detailed British royal history/biography from the prolific historian and novelist . . . In this hefty follow-up to Queens of the Conquest, Weir focuses on the period from 1154 to 1291, offering a meticulous tapestry that will appeal most to students of that and other medieval eras. . . . As in previous books, the exceedingly knowledgeable author's prodigious research is impressive. . . . Another treat for Weir fans."-Kirkus Reviews
"The author writes clear and entertainingly of the rich history of the Plantagenet queens of England and for an audience unfamiliar with the subject. . . . At appropriate places, Weir gives needed background to explain the lives of these legendary women."-New York Journal of Books
"This meticulous group biography . . . brushes away long-standing legends. . . . [Alison] Weir skillfully documents the political, religious, and cultural issues of medieval England and France."-Publishers Weekly
"Aimed at the general reader, this rich and robust account will appeal to readers interested in medieval England and some of its most fascinating royal women, whose stories are often left out of the history books."-Booklist
"Queens of the Crusades [is Weir's] latest in an impressive canon of more than two dozen historical biographies and novels. . . . [A] brilliant, compelling and meticulously detailed revelation . . . In its abundant detail about real lives lived amid the broad political strokes of medieval kings, Queens of the Crusades captures a rich sensory impression of how five brilliant yet fallible women managed their subject societies in a precarious and dangerously changeable world."-Bookreporter
"The latest massively detailed British royal history/biography from the prolific historian and novelist . . . In this hefty follow-up to Queens of the Conquest, Weir focuses on the period from 1154 to 1291, offering a meticulous tapestry that will appeal most to students of that and other medieval eras. . . . As in previous books, the exceedingly knowledgeable author's prodigious research is impressive. . . . Another treat for Weir fans."-Kirkus Reviews
"The author writes clear and entertainingly of the rich history of the Plantagenet queens of England and for an audience unfamiliar with the subject. . . . At appropriate places, Weir gives needed background to explain the lives of these legendary women."-New York Journal of Books
Short Excerpt Teaser
1
"When Love Buds Between Great Princes"
In September 1299, the Princess Marguerite of France found herself on a ship crossing the English Channel, with the white cliffs of Dover drawing ever nearer as she sailed to England to marry its King, Edward I. He was sixty and she was twenty, and probably in awe of his fearsome reputation. Her body was to seal a peace between England and France.
Her crossing was apparently smooth. Her half-brother, King Philip IV of France-known as "Philip the Fair" because of his good looks-had provided her with a retinue befitting a queen. The dukes of Burgundy and Brittany headed an impressive, elegantly dressed train of nobles and "people of knowledge." Among Marguerite's female attendants were seven French ladies, and two English ones sent by King Edward to wait on his bride and teach her English customs.
When her ship docked at Dover, Marguerite was received "with great ceremony" and news of her coming was sent to the King, who had temporarily ceased fighting the Scots to attend his wedding and was awaiting her twenty miles away in Canterbury, where lavish preparations for the welcome of the royal parties had been put in place. As Edward gave thanks for Marguerite's safe landing, she settled into the chambers prepared for her in the twelfth-century Great Tower in Dover Castle, where she spent the night behind walls twenty feet thick. The next day, she set out for Canterbury.
Edward I had been a widower for nearly nine years. His adored wife, Eleanor of Castile, a formidable and grasping woman, had died in 1290. In her memory, he had erected twelve beautiful crosses along the route taken by her funeral procession from Lincolnshire to Westminster Abbey, where she now lay buried in a magnificent tomb. "The impiety of death, which spares no man, has stricken our heart with vehement sorrow and turned the harp of our house into mourning," Edward had written of "our Queen of good memory, whom in life we dearly cherished, and whom, in death, we cannot cease to love." But now, driven by political imperatives, he was contemplating marrying a second time.
Edward I was one of England's greatest medieval kings. "In build, he was handsome and of impressive stature, towering head and shoulders above the average." His body, well preserved when his tomb was opened in 1774, was six foot two inches tall. "His brow was broad and the rest of his face regular," apart from "a drooping of the left eyelid." Neither this nor a slight stammer or lisp detracted from his awe-inspiring majesty. He was formidable: autocratic, forceful, fierce-tempered, fearless, and full of boundless vigor. A born leader and a talented and dynamic ruler, he was magisterial and statesmanlike, yet unscrupulous, ruthless, cruel, and occasionally violent.
Under Edward I, the prestige and authority of the English Crown reached its medieval zenith. In every respect, he personified contemporary ideals of kingship. A distinguished warrior, he had inflicted a devastating conquest upon Wales, and had since spent years relentlessly trying to conquer Scotland, his ultimate aim being the unification of Britain under his rule. He had streamlined the administration of his kingdom, enforced the royal prerogative, implemented far-reaching legal reforms that won him the epithet "the English Justinian," and promoted parliamentary government. He understood the need to curb the power of the great feudal lords and, by sheer force of character and judicious marriage alliances, he kept them firmly under control.
Edward's great adversary was Philip IV of France, the most powerful ruler in Christendom. From 1296, Philip had been at war with both England and Flanders.
The conflict was the result of a long-standing feud over England's possessions in France. In the twelfth century, through the marriage of Henry II to Eleanor, Duchess of Aquitaine, the empire of the Plantagenets, the ruling dynasty Henry had founded in 1154, had extended from the Scottish border to the Pyrenees and encompassed roughly the western third of France, while the French royal demesne had been limited to the regions around Paris. By 1204, Henry's son, King John, Edward I's grandfather, had lost most of the English Continental territories, including Normandy, to the ambitious Philip II "Augustus" of France, and there were further French encroachments under John's son Henry III, as successive French monarchs sought to broaden their domain. By the time of Edward I, all that remained of England's lands in France were the prosperous wine-producing duchy of Gascony (the southern part of the duchy of Aquitaine) and the counties of Ponthieu and Montreuil, which had come to the English Crown through the marriage of Edward I and Elea...
"When Love Buds Between Great Princes"
In September 1299, the Princess Marguerite of France found herself on a ship crossing the English Channel, with the white cliffs of Dover drawing ever nearer as she sailed to England to marry its King, Edward I. He was sixty and she was twenty, and probably in awe of his fearsome reputation. Her body was to seal a peace between England and France.
Her crossing was apparently smooth. Her half-brother, King Philip IV of France-known as "Philip the Fair" because of his good looks-had provided her with a retinue befitting a queen. The dukes of Burgundy and Brittany headed an impressive, elegantly dressed train of nobles and "people of knowledge." Among Marguerite's female attendants were seven French ladies, and two English ones sent by King Edward to wait on his bride and teach her English customs.
When her ship docked at Dover, Marguerite was received "with great ceremony" and news of her coming was sent to the King, who had temporarily ceased fighting the Scots to attend his wedding and was awaiting her twenty miles away in Canterbury, where lavish preparations for the welcome of the royal parties had been put in place. As Edward gave thanks for Marguerite's safe landing, she settled into the chambers prepared for her in the twelfth-century Great Tower in Dover Castle, where she spent the night behind walls twenty feet thick. The next day, she set out for Canterbury.
Edward I had been a widower for nearly nine years. His adored wife, Eleanor of Castile, a formidable and grasping woman, had died in 1290. In her memory, he had erected twelve beautiful crosses along the route taken by her funeral procession from Lincolnshire to Westminster Abbey, where she now lay buried in a magnificent tomb. "The impiety of death, which spares no man, has stricken our heart with vehement sorrow and turned the harp of our house into mourning," Edward had written of "our Queen of good memory, whom in life we dearly cherished, and whom, in death, we cannot cease to love." But now, driven by political imperatives, he was contemplating marrying a second time.
Edward I was one of England's greatest medieval kings. "In build, he was handsome and of impressive stature, towering head and shoulders above the average." His body, well preserved when his tomb was opened in 1774, was six foot two inches tall. "His brow was broad and the rest of his face regular," apart from "a drooping of the left eyelid." Neither this nor a slight stammer or lisp detracted from his awe-inspiring majesty. He was formidable: autocratic, forceful, fierce-tempered, fearless, and full of boundless vigor. A born leader and a talented and dynamic ruler, he was magisterial and statesmanlike, yet unscrupulous, ruthless, cruel, and occasionally violent.
Under Edward I, the prestige and authority of the English Crown reached its medieval zenith. In every respect, he personified contemporary ideals of kingship. A distinguished warrior, he had inflicted a devastating conquest upon Wales, and had since spent years relentlessly trying to conquer Scotland, his ultimate aim being the unification of Britain under his rule. He had streamlined the administration of his kingdom, enforced the royal prerogative, implemented far-reaching legal reforms that won him the epithet "the English Justinian," and promoted parliamentary government. He understood the need to curb the power of the great feudal lords and, by sheer force of character and judicious marriage alliances, he kept them firmly under control.
Edward's great adversary was Philip IV of France, the most powerful ruler in Christendom. From 1296, Philip had been at war with both England and Flanders.
The conflict was the result of a long-standing feud over England's possessions in France. In the twelfth century, through the marriage of Henry II to Eleanor, Duchess of Aquitaine, the empire of the Plantagenets, the ruling dynasty Henry had founded in 1154, had extended from the Scottish border to the Pyrenees and encompassed roughly the western third of France, while the French royal demesne had been limited to the regions around Paris. By 1204, Henry's son, King John, Edward I's grandfather, had lost most of the English Continental territories, including Normandy, to the ambitious Philip II "Augustus" of France, and there were further French encroachments under John's son Henry III, as successive French monarchs sought to broaden their domain. By the time of Edward I, all that remained of England's lands in France were the prosperous wine-producing duchy of Gascony (the southern part of the duchy of Aquitaine) and the counties of Ponthieu and Montreuil, which had come to the English Crown through the marriage of Edward I and Elea...
