Queens of the Age of Chivalry (England's Medieval Queens, Bk. 3)

Packed with dramatic true stories from one of European history’s most romantic and turbulent eras, this epic narrative chronicles the five Plantagenet queens of England between 1299 and 1409, from the New York Times bestselling author hailed as “the finest historian of English monarchical succession writing” (The Boston Globe).

The Age of Chivalry was an era of the Middle Ages dominated by the social and moral code of knighthood that prized noble deeds and the game of courtly love between aristocratic men and women. A period of high drama in English history, the fourteenth century witnessed 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 recounts the lives and reigns of five queen consorts: Marguerite of France was twenty when she married 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 six years old, only to see him violently overthrown.

This was a chaotic and brutal age, despite its chivalric color and ethos, and it stands as an arresting setting for the extraordinary stories of these queens’ lives.