Books : Isabella: She-Wolf of France, Queen of England

Rating: - Dull
Very disappointing. I would not recommend this. Ms Weir seems to want to demonstrate how much she knows, rather than how good a story she can tell. Long lists of people, and their relatives/titles/lands, adds nothing to the narrative of what should be an exciting story. The long history of buildings where the characters stay is mildly informative, but irrelevant to what is going on. This book would benefit from some robust editing. It is one of the few books I will throw away.

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Rating: - A very thorough biography of the She-Wolf,
Alison Weir has written better biographies than this. Although it is very, very thorough, this same thoroughness makes it quite boring. The author often keeps repeating the same things. For example, the people who supported Isabella are repeated times and times again with long explanations of the reasons why, while they remained mostly the same people with the same motives.
Nevertheless, Isabella is a very interesting subject and Weir is convincing in her effort to rehabilitate Isabella from the bad press she has received from male chroniclers through the ages.

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Rating: - Very interesting for medieval history.
Although I'm more interested in early modern rather than medieval English history, this was a very interesting book. Superficially, it is simply a biography of Isabella of France, the jilted, then unfaithful, then rebellious, queen of Edward II. However, nothing about the woman is simple, as her conspiracy and rebellion was the political event of the era.

Although some reviewers have criticised the book for indulging in mere speculation about Isabella based on the general circumstances of the times, this is actually one of the book's strengths, providing fuller background context and more atmosphere. What I found particularly interesting, was Alison Weir's account of the political alliances that Isabella and her lover needed to form and keep. Until I read this, I hadn't realised how significant the City of London and Parliament were in ensuring the victory or defeat of particular claimants to power in the middle ages. Isabella and Mortimer's descent on England in many ways prefigured William and Mary's expedition in 1688.

In all, it was far more interesting than most medieval histories, and very readable.

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Rating: - Absorbing with a fresh slant
I thoroughly enjoyed Weir's book on Isabella. Other reviewers have pointed out that it is extremely detailed and you do have to wade through a fair amount of background information. However, I feel all this extra information puts Isabella's life in context. There is no point reading a biography of someone if you do not have an idea what life was like during his/her lifetime.
Weir outlines her theory that Edward II was not in fact murdered, but escaped to live as a hermit in Italy. While on the one hand this does sound fairly preposterous, Weir gives evidence that it may have happened. I think one of the points this book makes so strongly, is that the story of Edward's death was probably fictitious. It is commonly held that he died from having a hot poker inserted up him, a clearly gruesome death, however Weir argues that this was an invention of Lancastrian propaganda, and accounts of Edward's death involving this particular method only appeared some years after his death and that no contemporary account at the time of his death mentions the hot poker story.
I think it is important to analyse historical stories such as the one involving Edward's demise, and not to necessarily take them as truth, something which Weir achieves.

Sources on Isabella's life are fairly scant, so Weir spends a lot of time postulating how Isabella would have behaved or reacted. Isabella doesn't come across as someone who is perfect, she had grown up a French princess and was accustomed to being treated accordingly, however the astonishing thing to emerge out of this book is how cruel, cold-hearted and greedy all the noblemen were. Weir's book paints a fascinating picture of powerful, ambitous men who were constantly vying with one another for the king's attention and favours. The result being, that the country was often on the verge of civil war. Many noblemen lost their lives either in battle or execution in their pursuit of more money and influence. It shows how precarious positions of power were, and how weak kings, such as Edward II, could be easily influenced.

In short, I would definitely recommend this book. It is entertaining, engaging and full of incident. However, I read it mainly because I know very little mediaeval history and the story of Isabella seemed a good a place as any to start, therefore I have not read any other major books on this period so I cannot comment on how accurate Weir's theories are likely to be.

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Rating: - Nothing new and rather biased.
This book won't bring any new information to people already familiar with Edward II's story. And I emphasize Edward II's story for this biography of Isabella can hardly be considered a book about her life.

While Alison Weir gives a good idea of the nature of European society in the 14th century, the problem is that she gives way too many irrelevant details that sometimes have nothing to do with the events she is supposed to inform us about.At times I forgot I was reading a book about Isabelle Capet.Indeed the major lack of sources regarding the life of this woman wouldn't make a book about her life longer than 50 pages.

Moreover, this book doesn't bring any light to many of the questions we asked ourselves about this forgotten English Queen.It merely presents the author's own theories, based on suppositions and sheer speculation. Weir pretends that Isabella was innocent of most of her crimes, blaming her "lover" Mortimer for her failures instead.

For instance, Weir is inclined to believe that Isabella was innocent regarding the murder of her husband simply because "no murder ever took place". Her evidence? Kent's plot designed to undermine Isabella's regime and the Fieschi letter saying Edward II was indeed never killed. Why should we believe this man? Because, according to Weir, he belonged to a good Italian family and he was related to the English royal family. Since when those are grounds for honesty and reliability?

Another example of Weir's poor judgement regarding the nature of sources is the fact that she blames only Mortimer for the attempt murder of Edward II leaving Isabella completely innocent in the eyes of the reader. The reason is the sadness Isabella expressed regarding his husband in her letters. One can only laugh at Weir's naive good faith, for it is common sense that Isabella didn't want her husband to be alive. Her life and crown were threatened as long as Edward II was alive. It is clear that she was well aware of the plots to kill her husband even if it was Mortimer who gave the order for his execution.

That being said, Weir is very convinced of the sexual nature of Isabella's relationship with Mortimer. Her sources are simply court gossip and propaganda. There is no way of knowing they were lovers. Both of them were fertile all right, but allegations of the Queen ever being pregnant are ludicrous for she lived a public life and her pregnancies would have been noticed.Again, Weir presents NO valid sources for her allegations regarding this matter.

In the end of her book she goes as far as bashing other historians for misjudging Isabella simply because they were male.In view of her lack of critical treatment regarding sources one can only guess she wanted to present a rather romantic figure, innocent of her most serious crimes.In other words, Weir seems to imply that her only crime was her alleged "love" for Mortimer.Mortimer was very influential in her life, but no serious sources have been able to prove they were in fact lovers.

In other words, Weir choses to believe whatever sources will help her convey the image she prefers of Queen Isabella, whose life remains a mystery.I bought this book inspite of all the criticism Weir gets in Academic circles, and I am frankly disappointed. I won't read any more biographies by this author....