Queen Isabella: Treachery, Adultery, and Murder in Medieval England (Paperback)

by Alison Weir (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. Isabella of France (1295?–1358) married the bisexual Edward II of England as a 12-year-old, lived with him for 17 years, bore him four children, fled to France in fear of his powerful favorite, returned with her lover, Roger Mortimer, to lead a rebellion and place her son on the throne and eventually saw Mortimer executed as her son asserted his power. Veteran biographer Weir (Eleanor of Aquitaine, etc.) battles Isabella's near-contemporaries and later storytellers and historians for control of the narrative, successfully rescuing the queen from writers all too willing to imagine the worst of a medieval woman who dared pursue power. Weir makes great use of inventories to recreate Isabella's activities and surroundings and, strikingly, to establish the timing of the queen's turn against her husband and her probable ignorance of the plot to kill him. Weir convincingly argues that the infamous story of Edward II being murdered with a red-hot iron emerged from propaganda against Isabella and Mortimer. (Her unlikely assertion that Edward escaped and lived out his life as a hermit is less believable.) Weir presents a fascinating rewriting of a controversial life that should supersede all previous accounts. Isabella is so intertwined with the greatest figures of her century and the next that any reader of English history will want this book. Maps not seen by PW.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Booklist
Best-selling British novelist Weir puts her exemplary writing skills, as well as her talent for alternative and provocative insight into documents and historiography, to good use in a riveting biography of the wife of England's unfortunate Edward II (who reigned 1307-27). That the king was ineffectual is commonly accepted (he was deposed and later died; according to tradition, he was murdered in a most horrendous fashion), and Queen Isabella, born a princess of France, has borne all these many centuries the label "she-wolf." Weir, in this book all British-history fans will devour, chooses, after much research and deliberation, to see her subject in more rounded terms than as "one of the most notorious femme fatales in history." The author, in fact, takes giant steps to prove that Isabella, as instigator of her own husband's removal from the throne, contributed greatly to the decline in England of the power of the monarch and thus the rise of democracy. Brad Hooper
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 512 pages
• Publisher: Ballantine Books (December 26, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0345453204
• ISBN-13: 978-0345453204
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.5 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (52 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #47,612 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

81 of 90 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars another woman Weir has managed to tease out of the past, October 22, 2005

By	A. Woodley "Patroness, Janeites, the Austen list" (New Zealand) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Queen Isabella: Treachery, Adultery, and Murder in Medieval England (Hardcover)

Alison Weir admits that there is so little known about these women of medieval history. The information she has to go on is very slight. In the first of her biographies which I read a couple of years ago she even admitted that there was not even a picture of Eleanor of Aquitaine available. And with Isabella, almost equal in fascination, she comes across many of the same problems. She resorts to using all information, no matter how slight to recreate Isabella's life.

She is one of the pivotal characters of British history. Married to the king she bore him 4 children before escaping to France. She returned with Roger Mortimer and together they overthrew the King and set her son on the throne.

Using things are diverse as inventories Weir has pieced together an excellent picture of life in Medieval times, and particularly that of this powerful queen.

The Macinations of court, make a disturbing read, to live in this time was to live in constant threat it seems. It is hard to imagine just how anyone survived to any age at all. Of course the strength of the barons derives from this period too.

I was a bit unsettled with her theory that Edward had survived the overthrow and lived out his life. On the other hand I have just been reading Byron Roger's book "And Audience with an Elephant" which talks about the lost children of Wales, these were children of royalty who were put into monasterys and convents by the English Kings to keep them from marrying and carrying on their royal line. They were locked up for their entire lives where they lived sometimes without even seeing the outside to 'play'. They had no contact and it was as though they were never heard from again. That Edward should disappear - rather than be murdered is not necessarily such a large step given how little we actually know.

Weir is enormously readable and if you enjoy this book read her book on Eleanor of Aquitaine as well. Weir is a consistently good writer whose books make good reading.

27 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Very well written biography of Isabella, but....., June 26, 2006

By	Jerry K. Belew "jkb" (Llano, TX United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Queen Isabella: Treachery, Adultery, and Murder in Medieval England (Hardcover)

I thoroughly enjoyed Ms. Weir's biography of Queen Isabella and the demise of Edward II of England. Very well written, and much easier to read than Weir's earlier biography of Eleanor of Aquataine. Having said that, I found myself a bit dismayed by two things: 1. Very difficult to figure out what year events occurred; this author, like many others, wrote entire chapters which gave months & days, but I found myself going back in the narrative repetitively to try and determine the year...and 2. Clearly Ms. Weir's purpose was to do her best to absolve Isabella of Edward II's death! She tries very hard to make a case that Edward was in fact not killed at Berkeley Castle, but rather escaped and lived the rest of his life in exile, primarily in Italy. I found this hard to believe, and the evidence to that effect a bit lacking. One situation which really caught my eye was Weir's statement that Edward's body (or that of a substitute if he in fact was not killed but escaped?) was IMMEDIATELY embalmed and completely wrapped in waxed "cerecloth" after his death in October, 1327. The body was then kept at Berkeley until December when it was released to the Abbot of Gloucester to be buried in St. Peter's Abbey, Gloucester...at which time "the corpse had been dressed in the late King's coronation robes, including his shirt, coif, and gloves...". I found myself wondering how they "dressed" a body that was COMPLETELY wrapped in waxed cloth? Interesting! From my perspective, I don't see that Isabella needed then or now "absolution" for the death of Edward II. He was a very bad king, betrayed her repeatedly with both Gaveston and De Spenser, took away her income, seperated her from her children, etc. The way I see it, Isabella likely harbored a deadly and undying hatred for her husband, and would've wanted to ensure that, after his overthrow, he would NEVER be able to return. Nevertheless, an outstanding book and well worth the time of any reader wanting to better understand the life and times of Isabella of France and her husband, Edward II.

43 of 50 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A French Queen In Medieval England , October 14, 2005

By	C. Hutton "book maven" (East Coast, USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Queen Isabella: Treachery, Adultery, and Murder in Medieval England (Hardcover)

Alison Weir is the author of numerous biographies of the ancient kings and queens of England. Although she has written three books about Henry VIII, she specializes in the lives of female royalty ("The Life of Elizabeth I"--1998, "Eleanor of Aquitaine"--2000, and "Mary, Queen of Scots"--2002). Her latest venture in British royalty is the story of Queen Isabella's reign in the 1300's.

Like Eleanor of Aquitaine, she was of French royal stock and a child bride to King Edward II in an arranged marriage to cement a Franco-Anglo alliance. The documentation is sparse for that time period, unlike other eras in English history. Hence Ms. Weir is forced to make educated suppositions rather than interpret conflicting historical records (which in terms of Isabella's life was too few and too brief). Still she tells the tale of Isabella and of the less-than-noble men in her orbit in an entertaining fashion. Fans (and new readers) of Ms. Weir will enjoy this rather long biography (500+ pages) of betrayal, death and sex among the royal families of England and France.