Queen Isabella: Treachery, Adultery and Murder in Medieval England

“Gripping . . . a highly readable tour de force that brings Queen Isabella vividly to life.”—The Washington Post Book World An “insightful and compelling” (USA Today) biography of Isabella of England, one of history’s most notorious and charismatic queens, from the New York Times bestselling author hailed as “the finest historian of English monarchical succession writing” (The Boston Globe) Isabella arrived in London in 1308, the spirited twelve-year-old daughter of King Philip IV of France. Her marriage to the heir to England’s throne was designed to heal old political wounds between the two countries, and in the years that followed, she would become an important figure, a determined and clever woman whose influence would come to last centuries. But Queen Isabella’s political machinations led generations of historians to malign her, earning her a reputation as a ruthless schemer and an odious nickname, “the She-Wolf of France.” The newly wed Isabella was denied the attentions of Edward II, a weak, sexually ambiguous monarch with scant taste for his royal duties. As their marriage progressed, Isabella was neglected by her dissolute husband and slighted by his favored male courtiers. Humiliated and deprived of her income, her children, and her liberty, Isabella escaped to France, where she entered into a passionate affair with Edward II’s mortal enemy, Roger Mortimer. Together, they deposed Edward and ruled in his stead as co-regents for Isabella’s young son, Edward III. Fate, however, was soon to catch up with Isabella and her lover. A work of extraordinary original research, Queen Isabella strips away centuries of propaganda, legend, and romantic myth, and gives a groundbreaking new perspective on Isabella, a truly remarkable woman who had a profound influence upon the age in which she lived and the history of western Europe.