Queen Isabella: Treachery, Adultery, and Murder in Medieval England
Author:
Genres: Biographies & Memoirs, History
Book Type: Paperback
Author:
Genres: Biographies & Memoirs, History
Book Type: Paperback
Overall, it's a good and fair biography of Isabella, a woman usually simply labeled evil and ignored. I got a good sense of her husband Edward II's reign, and of Isabella and her lover Mortimer's successful deposition of Edward II, the early years of Edward III's reign, when the show was really run by Isabella and Mortimer, and of Edward III ousting them.
That said, the writing was a bit too much like a summary report ready to submit to accounting. On April 3, she was here. By April 8, and no later, she was there. She and Edward celebrated Easter in this other place, and met with Kent and Gloucester in the week following. I guess it's a little dry?
She also makes an extraordinary claim - that Edward II did not die when the official record says he did. Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence, and she has one letter. OK, you could put it out there as postulation. But after that, she treats it as established fact, and makes some inferences into Isabella's psyche based on the presumption that of course Edward II was alive and living abroad in secret.
My wife loves Alison Weir, and while she liked the book too, acknowledges that it wasn't her best work.
That said, the writing was a bit too much like a summary report ready to submit to accounting. On April 3, she was here. By April 8, and no later, she was there. She and Edward celebrated Easter in this other place, and met with Kent and Gloucester in the week following. I guess it's a little dry?
She also makes an extraordinary claim - that Edward II did not die when the official record says he did. Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence, and she has one letter. OK, you could put it out there as postulation. But after that, she treats it as established fact, and makes some inferences into Isabella's psyche based on the presumption that of course Edward II was alive and living abroad in secret.
My wife loves Alison Weir, and while she liked the book too, acknowledges that it wasn't her best work.
