Queens Consort Paperback – August 3, 2010

I liked this book but I don't know that I would say that I loved it. I think what you like about the book you will also find yourself not liking about the book. What I mean by that is this book is A LOT. It is a dense look at all the Queen Consorts from Eleanor of Aquitaine to Elizabeth of York. No consort is missed no matter how little influence they may have had. On the one hand, it's fascinating to learn a little more about the consorts that don't ever get books written about them. On the other hand, it can get a bit tedious to read about some consorts who it seemed did so little. However, I do have to praise Ms. Hilton for trying to bring to light all the woman who were crowned consorts of England. It had to be an exhausting enterprise but Ms. Hilton did a good job trying to scrape together all the information she could so the reader could get some kind of picture of who each of these women were and I can't fault her for that. I think this may end up being a very good reference book that you pick up when you need a little reminder of who the Queen Consort was at the time. I can see myself picking it up many times in the future when I need just such a reminder.

Lisa Hilton has written a comprehensive study of nineteen queens of England spanning five hundred years. She identifies each wife of the reining monarch, then proceeds to describe the life, times, and political climate of the time period. Sometimes colorful and full of vivid pictures, other times confusing with the complicated bloodlines of the princesses, she does manage to build a detailed picture of the queens and their impact on the country. Hilton points out, "One picture of medieval woman, now thankfully dismissed, presents them as scarcely more than 'animated title deeds',". Hilton takes pains to prove that they were so much more. Educated, cultured, political, and savvy, they not only shaped an era, but a nation as well, paving the way for their own female descendants to literally embrace kingship and rule as effectively, and in some cases as ineffectively as their male ancestors.

This is not a book for the casual reader. Ms. Hilton has written, what I consider, a good reference book on the queen consorts of England. I has several problems with the book. 1) I'm pretty familiar with the queens, but unfortunately for the reader and the author, everyone seems to be named Matilda, Eleanor, Henry, etc. One needs a scorecard not to get lost. Ms. Hilton does her best to distinguish between women, but I know I got lost a time or two. 2) I read this on my Kindle. It appears the book had several genealogy charts included which were impossible to read on a Kindle. I would like to go back and read this book again with a chart in front of me. With that in mind, dive in and learn more about the women behind the throne.

A good read, but hard to compete with the first volume of Ailson Weir's history of the same Queens. Granted, Hilton's book condenses all the Medieval Queens into one volume, while Weir's is a planned four volume set, but a little of the detail gets lost in condensing so many interesting women into one ambitious book. If you can't wait for Weir's upcoming volumes, this is a great substitute and has great merit.

I have to give it 5 stars because it is a most detailed history of the subject but it is written more like a text book so it's not one of the "can't put it down" kind of book. I am impressed with the research that had to have gone into writing it so writing and covering that much history, I doubt if it could have been done better. Historians are use to reading such books.

Lisa Hilton begins this fine new history with a quote from Jane Austen: "It is to be supposed that Henry IV was married, since he certainly had four sons, but it is not in my power to inform the Reader who was his wife." How appropriate to begin with this, since the history of women, even royal women, is often considered secondary to that of their fathers, husbands, and sons. But as Hilton demonstrates here, the Queens Consort of medieval England were often proud, powerful women who wielded influence to assist (and sometimes oppose) their husbands and in-laws.Queens Consort consists of 19 chapters, each focussed primarily on one woman, from Matilda of Flanders who married William the Conqueror to Elizabeth of York wife of Henry VII. Especially in the earlier centuries there are few direct references to these women, so much has to be taken on inference, leading to quite a few "must have beens" and "probablys" scattered throughout the text. Nevertheless Hilton does a fine job of giving us a good idea of the personalities of all the Queens. For Queens like Eleanor of Aquitaine and Marguerite of Anjou the problem lies in sifting through the massive amount of material available to provide a fair picture of the women, and here again Hilton does well. Of necessity there is a vast amount of material on England's internal and external conflicts and developments, so that the book actually becomes a very accessible and pleasing history of medieval England. Don't overlook the Conclusion, which contains some interesting ideas on the Morte d'Arthur, Beowulf, and the roles of women and of femininity in the Middle Ages.

Wonderful book. I'm a history student and I focus primarily on European history, especially the medieval era. This book offers a great resource, and beyond just talking about the history it discusses the historiography, how we came to know what we know and how it has changed throughout time. It's so hard to find sources about women in history. The way some male historians talk, you would think women hadn't been invented until the 1980s.

I felt as though I was being rushed through history, so I shall read it again and again until my head stops reeling! It was captivating and full of information that helped me understand the progression of the royal family and their interrelations as well as their connections to Christianity from the beginning through their bloodlines

Lisa Hilton has written a comprehensive study of nineteen queens of England spanning five hundred years. She identifies each wife of the reining monarch, then proceeds to describe the life, times, and political climate of the time period. Sometimes colorful and full of vivid pictures, other times confusing with the complicated bloodlines of the princesses, she does manage to build a detailed picture of the queens and their impact on the country. Hilton points out, "One picture of medieval woman, now thankfully dismissed, presents them as scarcely more than 'animated title deeds',". Hilton takes pains to prove that they were so much more. Educated, cultured, political, and savvy, they not only shaped an era, but a nation as well, paving the way for their own female descendants to literally embrace kingship and rule as effectively, and in some cases as ineffectively as their male ancestors.

Largely bought for the chapter on Matilda of Flanders (wife of William the Conqueror) which is pretty comprehensive. Goes through medieval queens from 1066 to 1485. A great resource for anyone studying women's history but restricting themselves to the monarchy. The stories of the queens are really fleshed out with great commentary on likelihood of apocryphal stories having occurred. Shame that she didn't cover earlier women from c. 500AD as that would make a great contrast pre- and post-Norman.

This book is written by a very knowledgeable author. Since I read the book, I learnt much more than I already knew about England's Medieval Queens. Lisa Hilton has been thorough in her research and these ladies certainly come alive, one after the other. They suffered homesickness, sometimes rejection, death of their children, but most of them were no shrinking violets and they left their mark in no small way on history. I enjoyed reading this book (I thought I knew what there was to know about these ladies), but there is always something new which changes the whole outlook on what these people were really like. I gave the book four stars because I thought there was too much detail at times which left me a little confused and had to read some parts over again to understand who was related to who.

I really enjoyed this. It contained some great historical detail that I haven't found in other books about the period and it really brought the individual women to life. The main criticism I'd make is that at times it reads like somebody's PhD thesis: critiques of conclusions drawn by other writers, which are quoted verbatim. You don't get Simon Schama doing that sort of thing. The author is pretty good at drawing out certain themes (for example, the diminution in impact of queens interceding with their husbands for mercy for other people) but no strong themes emerge, which are what set the truly great history books apart. Nevertheless I really enjoyed this and would recommend it.

I bought this book in good faith expecting illustrations as promised.No illustrations.I wasn'tissued a refund when requested.Very 😞