She-Wolves

by Castor, Helen

• ISBN13: 9780061430763
• ISBN10: 0061430765
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2011-02-22
• Publisher: Harpercollins

Summary

When Edward VI died in 1553, the extraordinary fact was that there was no one left to claim the title of king of England. For the first time, England would have a reigning queen-but the question was which one: Katherine of Aragon's daughter, Mary; Anne Boleyn's daughter, Elizabeth; or one of their cousins, Lady Jane Grey or Mary, Queen of Scots. But female rule in England also had a past. Four hundred years before Edward's death, Matilda, daughter of Henry I and granddaughter of William the Conqueror, came tantalizingly close to securing the crown for herself. And between the twelfth and fifteenth centuries three more exceptional women-Eleanor of Aquitaine, Isabella of France, and Margaret of Anjou-discovered how much was possible if pre-sumptions of male rule were not confronted so explicitly-and just how quickly they might be vilified as "she-wolves" for their pains. The stories of these women, told here in all their vivid detail, expose the paradox that female heirs to the Tudor throne had no choice but to negotiate. Man was the head of woman, and the king was the head of all. How, then, could royal power lie in female hands?

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations	p. xi
Preface	p. xiii
Beginnings
July 6, 1553: The King Is Dead	p. 5
Long Live the Queen?	p. 25
Matilda: Lady of England
This Land Grew Dark	p. 39
Mathilda Imperatrix	p. 51
Lady of England	p. 73
Greatest in Her Offspring	p. 100
Eleanor: An Incomparable Woman
An Incomparable Woman	p. 133
The War Without Love	p. 164
By the Wrath of God, Queen of England	p. 184
Surpassing Almost All the Queens of This World	p. 194
Isabella: Iron Lady
One Man So Loved Another	p. 231
Dearest and Most Powerful	p. 256
"Someone Has Come Between My Husband and Myself"	p. 283
Iron Lady	p. 303
Margaret: A Great and Strong Laboured Woman
Our Lady Sovereign	p. 329
A Great and Strong Laboured Woman	p. 347
Might and Power	p. 362
The Queen Sustains Us	p. 388
New Beginnings
July 6, 1553: Long Live the Queen	p. 415
Not of Ladies' Capacity	p. 430
A Queen and by the Same Title a King Also	p. 451
Note on Sources and Further Reading	p. 461
Index	p. 469
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