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A life of Matilda-empress, skilled military leader, and one of the
greatest figures of the English Middle Ages "[Matilda] will attract
a growing audience interested in stories of women challenging the
male-dominated European past."-Alexandra Locking, Medieval Review
"A lively and authoritative account."-Katherine Harvey, Times
Literary Supplement Matilda was a daughter, wife, and mother. But
she was also empress, heir to the English crown-the first woman
ever to hold the position-and an able military general. This new
biography explores Matilda's achievements as military and political
leader, and sets her life and career in full context. Catherine
Hanley provides fresh insight into Matilda's campaign to claim the
title of queen, her approach to allied kingdoms and rival rulers,
and her role in the succession crisis. Hanley highlights how
Matilda fought for the throne, and argues that although she never
sat on it herself her reward was to see her son become king.
Extraordinarily, her line has continued through every single
monarch of England or Britain from that time to the present day.
An exhilarating, accessible chronicle of the ruling families of
France and England, showing how two dynasties formed one
extraordinary story  The twelfth and thirteenth centuries
were a time of personal monarchy, when the close friendship or
petty feuding between kings and queens could determine the course
of history. The Capetians of France and the Angevins of England
waged war, made peace, and intermarried. The lands under the
control of the English king once reached to within a few miles of
Paris, and those ruled by the French house, at their apogee,
crossed the Channel and encompassed London itself. Â In this
lively, engaging history, Catherine Hanley traces the great
clashes, and occasional friendships, of the two dynasties. Along
the way, she emphasizes the fascinating and influential women of
the houses—including Eleanor of Aquitaine and Blanche of
Castille—and shows how personalities and familial bonds shaped
the fate of two countries. This is a tale of two intertwined
dynasties that shaped the present and the future of England and
France, told through the stories of the people involved.
In 1215 a group of English barons, dissatisfied with the weak and
despicable King John, decided that they needed a new monarch. They
wanted a strong, experienced man, of royal blood, and they found
him on the other side of the Channel: Louis, eldest son and heir of
the king of France. "Louis emerges as a nearly man: nearly King of
England, nearly a successful military campaigner, and nearly the
man who terminated the Albigensian crusades. But what he nearly did
allows for Hanley's biography to touch on some of the most complex
issues of the early thirteenth century."-Alice Taylor, TLS In this
fascinating biography of England's least-known "king"-and the first
to be written in English-Catherine Hanley explores the life and
times of "Louis the Lion" before, during, and beyond his quest for
the English throne. She illuminates the national and international
context of his 1216 invasion, and explains why and how after
sixteen fruitless months he failed to make himself King Louis I of
England. Hanley also explores Louis's subsequent reign over France
until his untimely death on the Albigensian Crusade. Published
eight centuries after the creation of Magna Carta and on the 800th
anniversary of Louis's proclamation as king, this fascinating story
is a colorful tale of national culture, power, and politics that
brings a long-forgotten life out of the shadows of history.
An investigation of the depiction of warfare in contemporary
writings, in both fictional narratives and factual accounts. War
and combat were significant factors in the lives of all conditions
of people during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries; thousands of
men, women and children prepared for, engaged in and suffered from
the consequences of almost endemic armed conflict. However, while
war and combat feature prominently in many of the forms of
literature written at the time, the theme of warfare in some types
of narrative source remains a relatively under-studied area. This
book offers an investigation of the depiction of warfare in
contemporary writings, in both fictional narratives and factual
accounts, aiming to bridge the gap between the disciplines of
literature and military history. Using both established sources and
the latest research, the author examines how the application of
what is now known about the practical and technological aspects of
medieval warfare can aid us in our understanding of literature. She
also demonstrates, via an investigation of a corpus of Old French
chronicles, epics and romances, how the judicious study of sources
that are not always considered reliable can, in turn, inform us
about contemporary perceptions of, and attitudes towards, war and
other forms of armed combat. Dr Catherine Hanley was formerly a
Research Associate in the Department of French at the University of
Sheffield; she is now a freelance editor and historicalnovelist.
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North by Polaris (Paperback)
Catherine Hanley; Illustrated by Good Wives And Warriors; Michael Oliver
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R575
Discovery Miles 5 750
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Ships in 10 - 15 working days
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