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The Most Powerful Women in the Middle Ages: Queens, Saints, and Viking Slayers, From Empress Theodora to Elizabeth of Tudor Kindle Edition

by Melissa Rank (Author), Michael Rank (Author)

47 customer reviews

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Buy "The Most Powerful Women in the Middle Ages" and you will receive a free 2-book boxed set that contains "The History of Alexander the Great" and Mythology Stories: Tales from Norse, Old German, Hindu, and Egyptian Mythology." See the link for these ebooks inside.

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The idea of a powerful woman in the Middle Ages seems like an oxymoron. Females in this time are imagined to be damsels in distress, trapped in a high tower, and waiting for knights to rescue them, all while wearing traffic-cones for a hat. After rescue, their lives improved little. Their career choices were to be either a docile queen, housewife, or be burned at the stake for witchcraft.

But what if this image of medieval women is a complete fiction?

It turns out that it is. Powerful female rulers fill the Middle Ages. Anglo-Saxon queen Aethelflaed personally led armies into direct combat with Vikings in the 900s and saved England from foreign invasion. Byzantine Empress Theodora kept the empire from falling apart during the Nika Revolts and stopped her husband Justinian from fleeing Constantinople. Catherine of Siena almost single-handedly restored the papacy to Rome in the 1300s and navigated the brutal and male-dominated world of Italian politics. Joan of Arc completely reversed the fortunes of France in the Hundred Years War and commanded assaults on English fortresses despite being an illiterate 17-year-old peasant.

This book will look at the lives of the ten most powerful women in the Middle Ages. Whether it is the famed scholar Anna Komnene, who wrote the first narrative history, or Ottoman Queen Mother Kösem Sultan, who ruled the Islamic empire through three of her sons – all these women held extraordinary levels of power at a time when women were thought to not have any.

It will explore how they managed to ascend the throne, what made their accomplishments so notable, and the impact they had on their respective societies after their deaths. It will also describe the historical background of these women, their cultures, and what about it helped or hindered their rise.

Their stories still echo down to today. They are a testimony to the resiliency of individuals to accomplish extraordinary things, even if society puts on them enormous constraints.

Length: 122 pages

Enhanced Typesetting: Enabled

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Product Details

File Size: 3741 KB
Print Length: 122 pages
Simultaneous Device Usage: Unlimited
Publisher: Five Minute Books (December 11, 2013)
Publication Date: December 11, 2013
Sold by: Amazon Digital Services, Inc.
Language: English
ASIN: B00EJNPNGA
Text-to-Speech: Enabled

X-Ray:

Not Enabled

Word Wise: Not Enabled
Lending: Not Enabled
Enhanced Typesetting: Enabled

Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #16,916 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)
- #10 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > History > World > Medieval
- #14 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Nonfiction > Politics & Social Sciences > Women's Studies
- #33 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > History > Women in History

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Customer Reviews

4.1 out of 5 stars

5 star		49%
4 star		25%
3 star		15%
2 star		11%
1 star		0%

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

23 of 23 people found the following review helpful

Enjoyable, but has distracting errors

By JH on February 1, 2014

Format: Kindle Edition Verified Purchase

Overall, this book is quite interesting and enjoyable. However, I started noticing errors in the second half of the book, which became distracting. In the Margaret I of Denmark chapter, her successor is referred to as Eric and Erik. He also is first mentioned to be her great-nephew and later, her son. At one point, Joan of Arc is said to have fought the French. Queen Isabella's daughter is Joan and Joanna in the same paragraph. Also, some paragraphs are missing words. These are just some of the errors I noticed. Like I said, the book is interesting, but the errors are distracting.

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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful

Poorly Written!

By Lacey Marie Koch on August 24, 2014

Format: Kindle Edition Verified Purchase

Do yourself a favor and by a book solely devoted to the woman you are interested in. skip this one. it is riddled with spelling errors and distracting anecdotes about current celebrities.

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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful

Editor needed

By faultslip on November 30, 2014

Format: Kindle Edition Verified Purchase

I've read a couple of Ranks' books now. They have chosen interesting subjects, and their style is informal and easy. However, two issues continue. There are many errors, either through careless proofreading or through factual mistakes. Given Mr. Rank's education, I tend to believe that carelessness is the problem. The second problem may be more serious. The Ranks cite no sources, either within the text or in an appendix, works cited page, or bibliography. Is this academic dishonesty? Perhaps a stringent editor would hold these authors more accountable to their readers.

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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful

It's About Time Someone Set the Record Straight

By Julia Busch on September 3, 2013

Format: Kindle Edition Verified Purchase

...and the authors did a fantastic job. As a published art historian and one who is steeped in the lives of both Joan of Arc and Elizabeth I, it was a pleasure to read "The Most Powerful Women in the Middle Ages: Queens, Saints, and Viking Slayers, from Empress Theodora to Elizabeth of Tudor." The introduction alone is worth its weight in gold as it unravels how our modern day myths evolved into the prevalent misconceptions we hold relative to women in the "Dark Ages." This is a well researched, well written, highly entertaining account. My highest recommendation.

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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful

Strong Powerful Women!

By Steve Davison on August 14, 2013

Format: Kindle Edition Verified Purchase

I was pleasantly surprised to find this book. There is always some really interesting historical stories that they don't teach you in school. Sadly women are left out of history a lot.

Not here! Mini bios of some very powerful or strong women I have never heard. Most are European and most rival the strength and power of the men during their time.

Fascinating read is all I have to say!

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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful

The Most Powerful Women in the Middle Ages - Fascinating Book!

By Amy J. Waldow on August 18, 2013

Format: Kindle Edition Verified Purchase

As a bit of a history buff, I found this book absolutely fascinating! In school we learned about powerful men in history, but never really delved into the incredibly powerful women who had an extraordinary influence and helped to shape the future of the world. The Middle ages, an era where women were seen by many to be inferior to men, these women were courageous and brave enough to hold great power. This book is well-written, informative, and very entertaining. I highly recommend this book not only for the history buff, but for anyone who wants to be inspired by some extraordinarily powerful, influential women.

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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful

The Most Powerful Women In the Middle Ages

By Amazon Customer on September 27, 2013

Format: Paperback

Being a lover of history I was already familiar with the lives of most of the women mentioned in this book. However, I was surprised by some interesting facts I did not know. Not to mention the fact that I was introduced to a few women in history I had never heard of before.

This is a very informative book and I would definitely recommend it to any lover of history.

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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful

Did anyone proof read this book?

By Sofia on February 14, 2015

Format: Kindle Edition Verified Purchase

The content is of interest, but the volume doesn't appear to have been properly edited. Grammatical errors abound, and even incorrect use of phrases. For example, when trying to say that one of the women disliked an army of crusaders who ransacked as they passed her home, they said "this episode earned her the contempt," which means that the army had contempt for her, namely the reverse of the intent. These issues distract, and make one question the quality of the volume as a whole. Also, there are little glimpses of unfortunate misogyny. For example , a princess who bravely fought off Vikings who beset her bridal party on the way to a diplomatic marriage with her own sword is referred to as "the most lethal bridezilla in history". A stupid reference, and a telling attempt at humor.

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Most Recent Customer Reviews

Deeply Flawed

Interesting topic but burdened by terrible scholarship and a desperate need for editing. Gratuitous pop culture references further demonstrate that this work lacks credibility .

Published 1 month ago by Rachel Blake

Great Overview

It is a great overview of some of the influential females in the middle ages and well worth the read.

Published 4 months ago by Rachel Rossano

Excellent read

Great little book on the wonderful women of the middle ages. There are so many others they could have added though. Loved it!

Published 5 months ago by Shaun Heuston

Interesting Book

Very interesting book but would have liked more women to have been included. The book is very entertaining and keeps the readers attention.

Published 6 months ago by Audit Queen

intelligent, courageous

these are women who were far beyond their time.....intelligent, courageous,fearless....that made a mark in history and are seldom accounted for...

Published 6 months ago by yuquibo2009

It's a good history book

It's a good history book,maybe a little bit boring , but good, if you like history enough. If you are looking for a easy reading don't buy it.

Published 7 months ago by Irene

Not Worth the Time

The typos and informational errors distracted greatly from reading. Also a bibliography would have been nice, as would have removing the several chapters advertising the author's... Read more

Published 7 months ago by Kindle Customer

Five Stars

An easy read with lots of eye openers as far as women's role in our history.

Published 10 months ago by Nelda Curtiss

Smart read

Funny and educational. Joan of Arc always bugged me but I learned so much more. I would have liked the book to be longer and hear more about the female rulers in the Middle East.

Published 10 months ago by Lauren M Yuckert

Gotta love girl power!!~

I wish this book had been more in-depth! I enjoyed it a lot, even the parts on women I had read biographies on. Read more

Published 11 months ago by ecole

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