Power behind the throne

KATIA WRIGHT is entertained and (mostly) impressed by a book examining the lives and influence of five English queens of the 14th century

- KATIA WRIGHT

The 14th century was a turbulent period in English history, racked by political, social and economic upheaval. It experienced the Black Death, the Hundred Years' War and the Peasants' Revolt. It was a period of legal and cultural changes, too. Edward II and Richard II were deposed, while "Hammer of the Scots" Edward I and his grandson Edward III launched campaigns of military expansion. That era also witnessed key events that set the scene for the period of conflict that is today known as the Wars of the Roses.

Alison Weir's new book, Queens of the Age of Chivalry, places the reader in the midst of these complex, gripping events, telling the stories of five royal wives who lived through them. Continuing her modern chronicle of medieval English queens, Weir takes a sequential approach. Covering the period from 1299 to 1409, she traces the lives of Margaret of France, Isabella of France and Philippa of Hainault (wives of Edwards I, II and III, respectively), then Richard II's queens Anne of Bohemia and Isabella of Valois.

Queens of the Age of Chivalry by Alison Weir Jonathan Cape, 496 pages, £25