Queens Consort: England's Medieval Queens [Hardcover]

I have been reading historical fiction and non-fiction for over 20 years, so was pleased to see a book covering all the medieval queens - while some are extremely popular in both non-fiction and fiction (eg Eleanor of Aquitaine, Elizabeth Woodville, Elizabeth of York), many others are much more obscure.

I have read a few biographies of pre-Tudor English queens, but have found that these are better described as histories of the reigning king and the times - it seems that there is just not enough information recorded about medieval queens to write a specific biography. I thought, therefore, that the format of this book - a chapter per queen - was an excellent idea, but the book was a disappointment.

Firstly, there seemed to be an assumption that the reader had a background knowledge about key events in each reign (which may not necessarily be the case, especially for overseas readers, or those new to the medieval era). Some events were described in detail, whilst others appeared to be skimmed over.

The personalities of the various medieval kings would have had a signficant impact on their queens, and for the most part, these were ignored.

I realise that it is impossible to accurately analyse the personality of a woman who lived over 500 years ago (particularly given the scarcity of sources for court life pre-Tudor times), but there are "clues" which can be followed, and I think more work could have been done to develop a "personality profile" of each queen. Similiarly, although there are few physical descriptions or illustrations of medieval queens, some do exist, and there are tomb monuments based on actual appearance. To make the blanket statement that all high-born women were typically described as beauties and seemingly make no attempt to describe each queen was disappointing. If nothing else, there are physical descriptions for each king, and for their male heirs, so this could be used (as it has been by some fictional authors such as Sharon Penman) to create a "best guess" on each queen's physical appearance. In addition, there are detailed descriptions of some queens (eg Philippa of Hainault, Elizabeth Woodville, Elizabeth of York)in existence.

Greater context in the introduction regarding key issues for high-born medieval women would have supported the text (for example, female life expectancy, literacy, infant mortality).

The numbers of children born to some queens differed from other books I have read (for example many texts identify 16 children for Edward I and Eleanor of Castile). Some medieval queens would have spent the majority of their queenships pregnant, many of these pregnancies ending in miscarriage or stillbirth, which would have also had an impact on their psychology, their health, and their influence on events.

There were a number of errors scattered through the text, some from careless editing (ie wrong name) but also occasional factual errors. While some points of view expressed by the author were backed up with contemporary evidence and reference to other texts, others (eg the reasons for Eleanor of Acquitaine's annulment, the fate of the Princes in the Tower) were not.

As another reviewer has stated, a family tree (and a list of key dates and people) at the start of each chapter would have been useful - even for someone who has a good overview of medieval history, the family trees are very interwoven and complex.

In summary - a good idea, but quite poor execution.

First I was quite a bit sceptical about this book project by Lisa Hilton. I am not too found of books covering several personalities and that over nearly 500 years. Very often, one gets never a real feeling for the personalities covered.

Well, I have to admit Lisa Hilton managed that brilliantly.

20 Queen Consorts are covered, each with rougly 20 pages and all are very different - from the legendary Elenor of Aquitaine, the She-Wolf of France, a Queen accused of witchcraft, well-remember Queens, forgotten Queens or a child Queen. Lisa Hilton describes their individual lives as consort to the King, as the King's wife, mother of Kings and her role she had to fullfill. She shows how the role of Queen Consort develops over the centuries and how each Queen left her mark and developed the role, how Queens contributed to the reign of their husbands, but as well how they were liabilities. Lisa Hilton judges the Queens in a great manner, she is quite clear how she sees them. I loved her style which has a great flow.

I believe Lisa Hilton has done a great job and has written a book which will be a great classic on the medieval Queens Consorts.

I hope she is going to continue with the later Queen Consorts.

The first few chapters of this book were great, but I thought the chapter on Eleanor of Aquitaine was a bit weak, as if she couldn't be bothered since Eleanor has been written about by others in far more detail. However, when I reached Isabelle d'Angouleme I was annoyed by the mistakes, starting with the first line. I did wonder if this chapter had been written by someone else or if it had not been proof read.

Things did pick up a bit for a while but I felt as if when writing about Isabelle of France she was over concerned with having a pop at other writers. By the time I reached the chapters about Marguerite de Provence and Elizabeth Woodville I was convinced the same ghost writer who had dealt with Isabelle d'Angouleme was back. She repeatedly refers to Louis XI of France as Louis IX, and that is not the only stupid mistake which should have been picked up by the editor. When she refers to Warwick the Kingmaker she never mentions the fact that he is the brother of Cecily Neville so he is the brother-in-law of Richard Duke of York and maternal uncle of both Edward IV and Richard III. When she mentions Warwick promoting his family members, it would also be true to say that Edward IV was promoting his family members - on his mother's side.

Overall I found this book very disappointing, and I was irritated by the shoddy work and the number of errors.