Category Archives: Medieval History Books

Reviews of Medieval History Books

Book Review: “Eleanor of Castile” by Jean Powrie

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Powrie Eleanor of Castile

What a delightful and fun book this is. I’ve been doing quite a bit of research on Eleanor of Castile and had this book on my shelf. The back cover of the book states this is not a conventional biography of Eleanor but deals more with her death, the burial of her remains and the journey of her cortege from the north of England to Westminster along with information on the Eleanor Crosses.

The book was published in 1990 and the first chapter is an overview of the life of Eleanor, giving what sparse facts we know of her. The chapter ends with her death in Harby. The next section of the book has chapters describing the cities where Eleanor’s body rested giving many details of the locations as they existed in the thirteenth century. Oftentimes there are maps. The author gives the route Eleanor’s corpse took from Harby to London recounting the possible roads chosen and how the cortege entered each locale. For every city there is a description of what gates, churches, cathedrals, friaries and abbeys existed at the time as well as any castles or other likely housing locations. Powrie tells us which church the body may have lain in and where the entourage probably lodged overnight. In most cases this was in a royal castle or a friary.

The most interesting aspect of this book is the narrative explaining all the features and qualities of the Eleanor Crosses, the monuments King Edward I built for his beloved wife at every location where her body rested on this long journey. These Crosses are not just a memorial to the Queen’s life and King Edward’s regard for Eleanor but a symbol of royal power. Powrie tells us of the Crosses that still exist and gives drawings or photos of their appearance and how they have been restored. There are many of the Crosses that no longer exist and there are explanations for what most likely happened to them. If there are any depictions from history or possible remnants of the Crosses there are illustrations. Any records of payments made to artisans for the creation of the Crosses are given in detail.

The book ends with information on Westminster Abbey and Eleanor and Edward’s tomb there across from Edward’s father King Henry III’s burial place, next to the shrine of King Edward the Confessor. This book is a pleasant surprise and filled with pertinent information on cities and buildings in medieval England. If you are interested in the subject, I would recommend it.

Book Review: “Eleanor of Castile: The Shadow Queen” by Sara Cockerill

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Eleanor Cockerill book cover

The title of this book is really fitting because there isn’t much in the way of historical records about this medieval English queen. Eleanor of Castile’s life was due for a new look as previous biographies were written years ago. Sarah Cockerill, an English lawyer, spent the last ten years doing in depth research on Eleanor and it really shows. She should be given much credit for this as she gives us all the facts known about Eleanor along with some fascinating insight into her personality. Eleanor’s marriage to King Edward I was obviously a love match, a real anomaly in English royal history. Cockerill gives us many tidbits on their relationship which is fascinating stuff.

That being said, this book is not an easy read. It’s badly in need of an editor. There are errors and omissions, as well as spelling and grammatical errors which are annoying. The narrative is not in chronological or any other sensible order. Due to the lack of sources on Eleanor, a large portion of the book deals with the history of the men surrounding her and the reader can easily get bogged down. For me, it wasn’t until about two hundred pages in that it got more focused on Eleanor and Cockerill’s insight began to become apparent. This isn’t a curl up with the cat and a cup of tea book but if you are looking for a good reference on Eleanor of Castile and thirteenth century English history, this book will fit the bill.

Book Review: “Eleanor of Castile: Queen and Society in Thirteenth-Century England” by John Carmi Parsons

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eleanor of castile parsons book cover

Eleanor of Castile is one of the few medieval queens I know very little about. Apparently there is a reason for this. Very little of historical record exists about this lady. What we do know of her is she was the wife of King Edward I of England, she went with him on Crusade, she had many children, she was a prolific collector of properties and Edward built crosses in her memory. Interestingly, there are a few books about her and John Carmi Parsons wrote one of them.

This work can be considered a quasi-scholarly effort. That being said I enjoyed this book. Parsons has separate sections. The first is a section on theme and context. Specifically he tells us how little in the way of historical records there are and gives us a biographical sketch of what we know about her. He talks a little about Eleanor’s reputation through the ages: how she is considered a grasping queen at one point and a gentle and benign queen at other times in history. He talks about her many pregnancies and births and her unexpected death at the age of forty-nine. This gives us a fairly complete biographical history of her.

The next section is about Eleanor’s prerogatives, resources and administration. Parsons goes into detail about Eleanor’s sources of revenue, her household and staff, wardrobe, exchequer and treasury, and local administration. All of this is pretty fascinating stuff because it doesn’t just relate to Eleanor alone but also other thirteenth century queens. It gives us an idea of how these women lived. Chapter three is an interesting glimpse into Eleanor’s reputation as a queen. The name of this section is “Outcry and Gossip, Rumor and Scandal”. Apparently Eleanor was well known for her acquisition of properties, most likely with Edward’s overt encouragement and her methods could sometimes be dubious judging from the evidence. Eleanor’s income apparently was inadequate and she used any means necessary to increase it.

Parson’s includes a long appendix which chronicles all of Eleanor’s procurement of property where records exist. This section is forty pages long! Even if you don’t read the whole chapter, it gives you an idea of how Eleanor spent her time and increased her income. The last chapter gives an explanation of the legend and the reality of Eleanor’s reputation. Evidently, Eleanor was concerned about her reputation and how she was perceived. On her death bed, she directed an audit of her proceedings in her property acquisitions and ordered any irregularities be made whole. This book is enlightening and I would highly recommend it. If you are unfamiliar with medieval terms such as “advowson” and “corrodies” I would suggest you keep a dictionary close by. It’s a great introduction to this elusive queen and tells us quite a bit about how medieval queens operated.

Book Review: “The Lady Queen: the Notorious Reign of Joanna I, Queen of Naples, Jerusalem, and Sicily” by Nancy Goldstone

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Joanna of Naples book cover

I don’t know for certain if George RR Martin found inspiration for his “Game of Thrones” books from this era in history or not but it certainly appears that he did. There are many elements in this story that mimic what I’ve watched in the TV show. Needless to say, this history in this book is more than mesmerizing.

The story of the reign of Joanna is complicated and has its roots going back to Charles of Anjou, the brother of the saintly King Louis IX of France. He was not satisfied with being the brother of a King and sought a kingdom for himself. He managed to get a papal grant to the Kingdom of Sicily in 1262 and then earned it by conquest in 1266. He was later expelled but still claimed power over the peninsular possessions of the kingdom and made his capital at Naples. Because of this he is usually styled as the King of Naples after 1282 and so are his successors. His grandson, Robert the Wise ruled the kingdom from 1309 to 1343 and due to various reasons, some maybe not so legitimate, his granddaughter Joanna succeeded him.

Joanna I, Queen of Naples, Jerusalem and Sicily

Joanna I, Queen of Naples, Jerusalem and Sicily

Joanna spent her early years in the care of her grandfather and grandmother at the Neapolitan court, learning from these masters. Goldstone goes into the early history of Joanna’s family leading up to her birth and years at court as a child. I find the history of Italy and all its various kingdoms and alliances a little confusing due to not being familiar with this era. But Goldstone is really masterful in explaining the history making this a really enjoyable read. While I had heard the terms Guelph and Ghibelline, they were unclear to me. But Gold stone straightens this out by giving definitions and clarifying how they were parties who were loyal to the Pope and the Holy Roman Emperor.

Joanna marries four times, each husband being more dreadful than the last until the final one, Otto of Brunswick who supported her. It’s a pity she didn’t marry him first. She had children but none of them survived past childhood. The lack of an heir and her sex make her reign perilous and open to conquest. She was a supporter of the Pope in Avignon but he was constantly threatening interdict or excommunication and to take away her powers as Queen and give them to one of his legates. Her relatives were the bane of her existence. Her first husband was murdered by the feuding factions of her court and she basically never lived this down for the rest of her life, even though she was found completely innocent of the crime. Her husband’s relatives, the royal Hungarians, used the murder as an excuse for many years to try to take Joanna’s throne from her.

I can’t recommend this book enough. It reads like a novel and Goldstone’s writing is clear and laced with humor. This is history at its best and most notorious, horrifying and fun at the same time.

Book Review: “Edward the Elder 899-924” edited by N.J. Higham and D.H. Hill

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Edward the Elder cover

There is a real dearth of primary sources for historians to work with regarding the reign of the Anglo-Saxon King Edward the Elder, first son of King Alfred the Great. This is a real shame because Edward did much to build the English state during his twenty-four year reign. He led many successful campaigns against the Vikings and had control over much of southern and middle of England. His influence also touched Wales and the north. He had three wives, a large family and prickly relations with the church. This book is an attempt to shed some light on the reign of this important and critical ruler.

This volume was published in 2001 and is a compendium of papers which were presented at a conference at the University of Manchester, organized by the Manchester Center for Anglo-Saxon Studies in 1999 in recognition of the eleventh centenary of Edward the Elders accession to the throne of Wessex upon his father’s death. A variety of scholars have written individual chapters using such diverse sources as coins and textiles, literature and archaeology. If the reader is familiar with Anglo-Saxon studies, some of these names will be very recognizable.

While some of the papers contained in this volume are well written and readable, some of them are not. A number of the subjects are interesting and some are esoteric and pedantic. It would depend on the reader’s preference and purpose in reading the book as to whether the chapters are useful or not. Regardless, the book brings awareness to many aspects of Edward’s reign. Personally, I enjoyed the introduction by Nick Higham on Edward’s reputation and the papers on Edward’s relationship with the church. Barbara Yorke’s chapter on Edward as Atheling was most interesting. She went into how his father worked to make him the candidate to succeed him and to protect Edward’s position. Simon Keynes has a great chapter which serves as a survey of Edward’s reign. There are specialty chapters on the coinage of Edward, how the Irish viewed West Saxon dynastic practices, the Danelaw, the shiring of Mercia, York, and an interesting chapter on the embroideries from the tomb of St. Cuthbert in Durham Cathedral. It is believed that Edward’s second wife Aelflaed commissioned these embroideries.

There are other interesting chapters here on Edward’s large family, his own marriages and how he married his daughters to men on the continent and a whole chapter on his niece Aelfwynn. Aelfwynn was the daughter of Edward’s elder sister Aethelflaed, the Lady of Mercia. When Aethelflaed died, Edward exiled Aelfwynn and basically took over the kingdom of Mercia. I found these chapters on the family relations the most interesting and in sync with my own personal research. Whether the reader of this volume is an advanced historian, undergraduate or a general reader, there is something of interest for everyone. This book will serve as the closest to a biography as we can expect until someone writes a definitive work on Edward.

Book Review: “In the Wake of the Plague: The Black Death & the World it Made” by Norman Cantor

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in the wake of the plague 6

The Black Death and all its consequences on Western Europe and the world is always a popular and intriguing subject. The topic was of interest and the book had been on the New York Times bestseller list so I had high hopes when I saw this book on the shelf at the bookstore.

It turned out “In the Wake of the Plague” does not relate an overall view of the magnitude of the results of the Black Death as expected. The first part of the book gives the bio-medical context of the plague. Cantor describes the symptoms of the illness and then goes into the possibility of its origin. He doesn’t believe it was just fleas from rats that spread the disease. Several specialists have put forth the theory there may have been an outbreak of anthrax or some other type of cattle murrain and people may have ingested tainted meat. Cantor subscribes to these theories.

The next chapters are devoted to the demise of specific individuals and what the outcome of their deaths meant. His first personality is Princess Joan, daughter of King Edward III of England. She was on her way to Spain to marry the heir to the throne of Castile and stopped off at Bordeaux in France. Because it was a port of trade, the plague had arrived and Joan soon succumbed to the disease. The marriage was a part of King Edward’s imperial ambitions. The plague decimated the manpower needed to continue Edward’s war in France, the war known as the Hundred Years War. Cantor argues this kept the kings of England from taking the throne of France.

Another person of consequence for Cantor was Thomas Bradwardine, the personal confessor to King Edward III and Archbishop of Canterbury appointee in 1349. He traveled to Avignon to receive the blessing of the pope and then returned to England for the ceremony to consecrate him as Archbishop. Two days later, Bradwardine came down with a fever and five days later he was dead. Bradwardine was eminent intellectual who had written treatises on velocity and theology. Cantor argues that with his death, the study and practices of science were set back by many years.

Other chapters are dedicated to the effects of the plague on land rights and assets for lords and peasants and men and women of property. Cantor explains the labor shortage created by all the deaths and how the survivors could command more for their labor. There are chapters on the how the plague was considered a Jewish conspiracy leading to many deaths and on the theories of how the plague was disseminated by cosmic dust, serpents and how it originated in Africa.

All of Cantor’s information is very interesting however his explanations are pretty esoteric and his writing is quirky. The time frame is not linear either. So while the subject matter is of use, it’s not an easy read. I would recommend this book if the reader is already versed in the history of the Black Death and its consequences.