When Edward VI died in 1553, the extraordinary fact was that
there was no one left to claim the title of king of England. For
the first time, England would have a reigning queen--but the
question was which one: Katherine of Aragon's daughter, Mary; Anne
Boleyn's daughter, Elizabeth; or one of their cousins, Lady Jane
Grey or Mary, Queen of Scots.
But female rule in England also had a past. Four hundred years
before Edward's death, Matilda, daughter of Henry I and
granddaughter of William the Conqueror, came tantalizingly close to
securing the crown for herself. And between the twelfth and
fifteenth centuries three more exceptional women--Eleanor of
Aquitaine, Isabella of France, and Margaret of Anjou--discovered
how much was possible if pre-sumptions of male rule were not
confronted so explicitly--and just how quickly they might be
vilified as "she-wolves" for their pains.
The stories of these women, told here in all their vivid
detail, expose the paradox that female heirs to the Tudor throne
had no choice but to negotiate. Man was the head of woman, and the
king was the head of all. How, then, could royal power lie in
female hands?
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