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Queens of the Age of Chivalry

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Queens of the Age of Chivalry

By: Alison Weir
Narrated by: Esther Wane
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About this listen

Medieval queens were seen as mere dynastic trophies, yet many of the Plantagenet queens of the High Middle Ages dramatically broke away from the restrictions imposed on their sex, as Alison Weir shows in this gripping group biography of England's fourteenth-century consorts.

Using personal letters and wonderfully vivid sources, Alison Weir evokes the lives of five remarkable queens: Marguerite of France, Isabella of France, Philippa of Hainault, Anne of Bohemia and Isabella of Valois.

The turbulent, brutal Age of Chivalry witnessed the Black Death, the Peasants' Revolt, the Hundred Years War against France and savage baronial wars against the monarchy in which these queens were passionately involved. Queens of the Age of Chivalry brilliantly recreates this truly dramatic period of history through the lives of five extraordinary women.

"Stunning... [Weir has] brought those five queens to life like never before. I just raced through it—it has all the drama and suspense of a novel."—Tracy Borman, praise for Queens of Crusades

©2022 Alison Weir (P)2023 W. F. Howes Ltd Europe Historical Medieval Politics & Activism Royalty Tudor
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I haven’t enjoyed a book this much for a very long time!! Thoroughly researched, written like a novel. Alison Weir one of my top two favourite authors. Hope she brings out a book about the following queens!! I recommend this highly if you’re interested in European Medieval history!

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I have the hardcopy version of the first book in this series (Queens of the Conquest), and listened to the second with the same narrator as this book so I knew there was going to be some difficulty with this audio version because of the large amount of quotations and footnoting, and this narrator's lack of delineation of many quotes (except where reading in the voice of a central character which was fairly rare). I know that the footnotes would not be read (which, as I said for my review of Queens of the Crusades, is unfortunate because in the first book the footnotes often contained interesting information) but there was even less clarity about when I was listening to the main body text and quotations than with the second book. I doubt I'll listen to the audio version of the next book when it becomes available if it is read by the same narrator.

I've read complaints that the content is quite dry but because it involves considerable recitation of primary sources. I really like that insight so for me the content was excellent.

Great book, poor narration

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After have a dig at Ian Mortimer who happens to be a real historian, Ms Weirs book is just a mouthed copy of assorted documents with her ever present romantic spin on it. Never letting a good story get in the way of facts, she often quotes unreliable sources to back up her romanticised notions of history. This is her forte. Students should not use this book as reference.

Irritatingly, she does not mention how she comes to decide what medieval monetary values are in modern terms. Fully fledged and lauded historians warn of the difficulties of doing this. Ms Weir appears to override them in an effort to appear a real historian.

History or Romantic Nonsense

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