Book Review
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Rebellion by Richard Cullen
The start of an epic new historical adventure series from Richard Cullen introducing The Black Lion As war approaches, the lion will roar… 1213AD. King Richard the Lionheart is dead, and his brother, John Lackland, sits uneasily upon the throne of England. Across the sea, Prince Louis, heir to the powerful King Philip Augustus of Continue reading
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God’s Own Gentlewoman: The Life of Margaret Paston Diane Watt
The remarkable story of Margaret Paston, whose letters form the most extensive collection of personal writings by a medieval English woman. Drawing on what is the largest archive of medieval correspondence relating to a single family in the UK, God’s Own Gentlewoman explores what everyday life was like during the turbulent decades at the height Continue reading
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Crusaders and Revolutionaries of the Thirteenth Century: De Montfort by Darren Baker
One of the families that dominated the thirteenth century were the de Montforts. They arose in France, in a hamlet close to Paris, and grew to prominence under the crusading fervour of that time, taking them from leadership in the Albigensian wars to lordships around the Mediterranean. They marry into the English aristocracy, join the Continue reading
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Book Review: Edward II’s Nieces, The Clare Sisters by Kathryn Warner
The de Clare sisters Eleanor, Margaret and Elizabeth were born in the 1290s as the eldest granddaughters of King Edward I of England and his Spanish queen Eleanor of Castile, and were the daughters of the greatest nobleman in England, Gilbert the Red’ de Clare, earl of Gloucester. They grew to adulthood during the turbulent Continue reading
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Stephen and Matilda’s Civil War by Matthew Lewis
The Anarchy was the first civil war in post-Conquest England, enduring throughout the reign of King Stephen between 1135 and 1154. It ultimately brought about the end of the Norman dynasty and the birth of the mighty Plantagenet kings. When Henry I died having lost his only legitimate son in a shipwreck, he had caused Continue reading
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Women of Power in Anglo-Saxon England by Annie Whitehead: Blog Tour Review
Many Anglo-Saxon kings are familiar. Æthelred the Unready is one, yet less is written of his wife, who was consort of two kings and championed one of her sons over the others, or his mother who was an anointed queen and powerful regent, but was also accused of witchcraft and regicide. A royal abbess educated Continue reading
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Reviewed: Queens of the Conquest by Alison Weir
The story of England’s medieval queens is vivid and stirring, packed with tragedy, high drama and even comedy. It is a chronicle of love, murder, war and betrayal, filled with passion, intrigue and sorrow, peopled by a cast of heroines, villains, stateswomen and lovers. In the first volume of this epic new series, Alison Weir Continue reading
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Reviewed: In the Company of Fools by Tania Bayard
Christine de Pizan Mysteries #3 A baby abandoned in the palace gardens leads scribe sleuth Christine de Pizan into a mystery involving murder, superstition and scandal in fourteenth-century France. Paris, 1396. Scribe Christine de Pizan is shocked when the Duke of Orleans’ fools find a baby, wrapped in rags and covered in sores, abandoned in Continue reading
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Reviewed: The Deepest Grave by Jeri Westerson
London, 1392. Strange mischief is afoot at St Modwen’s Church. Are corpses stalking the graveyard at night, disturbing graves, and dragging coffins? When a fearful Father Bulthius begs Crispin Guest for his help, he agrees to investigate with his apprentice, Jack Tucker, intrigued by the horrific tales. Meanwhile, an urgent summons arrives from Crispin’s former Continue reading
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