Fiction based round real historical figures – the English
royal family especially – is popular, but can be confusing. The
same names and titles appear and reappear, worn by different people in
different generations, and just when you think you’ve got it all worked out,
they all swap sides or get themselves attained and surrender their titles along
with their heads.
I’ve often turned to the history books for a bit of
enlightenment so when one of the borrowers at my library this week called out
“Help! I’m lost in the fifteenth century and I can’t keep my Elizabeths and
Margarets straight”. I knew exactly what
she was feeling, and what books might help.
Top of the list is Alison Weir’s “Britain’s Royal Families: The Complete Genealogy”. This is a
comprehensive listing of the genealogies of England
and Scotland’s
royal families from 800AD to (almost) the present. It lists legitimate as well as illegitimate
children and notes the sources for the information presented. Its definitely helpful in sorting out the
exact relationships between the various royal ladies, but does require a bit of
concentration to follow.
Next on my list is Lisa Hilton’s “Queens Consort” that
examines the lives of the twenty women who were queens consort of England
between 1066 and 1503, and the contributions – or otherwise – they made to the
shaping and stability of their nation. From
Matilda of Flanders, whose alliances were vital to the success of the Norman
invasion, to Eleanor of Aquitaine and Isabella of France who rebelled against
their husbands, to queen Berengaria, who never actually set foot in England and
finally Anne Neville, who as the
Lancastrian dowager Princess of Wales married her first husbands murderer to
become the Yorkist Queen. This
meticulously researched and rigorous text goes beyond simple biography to
examine the development of the role of queen in the English context. A role
predicated on but not limited to marriage to the king and that involved both
tremendous influence and vulnerability.
I’d also recommend Helen Castor’s “She Wolves: The Women WhoRuled England Before Elizabeth” for a more detailed look at the Empress Maud,
Eleanor of Aquitaine, Isabella of France and Margaret of Anjou, the royal women
who actively sought to rule themselves, with mixed success, during the medieval
period. Helen Castor has also presented
a very watchable television series with the same title.
For a more detailed look at the later medieval period – the
time of the war of the roses, Sarah Gristwood’s “Blood Sisters: The HiddenLives of the Women Behind the Wars of the Roses” is an excellent read. It gives an account of the lives of seven
royal women between 1445-1509 (Margaret of Anjou, Cecily Nevile, Margaret
Beaufort, Elizabeth Woodville, Margaret of Burgundy and Elizabeth of York)
showing how changing circumstances, represented by the popular motif of the
wheel of fortune, affected each and how they influenced their world. Sarah Gristwood asks some interesting
questions about the varied accounts that have survived of these royal women,
and about the surprisingly few appearances that some make in contemporary
records.
Another useful book focussing on this later period is “The Women of the Cousins' War: The Duchess,The Queen and the King’s Mother” by Philippa Gregory, David Baldwin &
Michael Jones. This book comprises three
short biographical essays on Jacquetta of Luxembourg, Elizabeth Woodville and
Margaret Beaufort, and an extended introduction that discusses the difference
between 'history' and 'fiction' from the writer’s perspective, and the
importance, challenges, rewards of writing women’s history.
Britain’s
Royal Families: The Complete Genealogy by Alison Weir
Queens Consort by Lisa Hilton
She Wolves: The Women Who Ruled England
Before Elizabeth
by Helen Castor
Blood Sisters: The Hidden Lives of the Women Behind the Wars
of the Roses by Sarah Gristwood
The Women of the
Cousins' War: The Duchess, The Queen and the King’s Mother by Philippa Gregory,
David Baldwin & Michael Jones
