She-Wolves: The Women Who Ruled England Before Elizabeth

Paperback. Pub Date :2011-07-01 Pages: 496 Language: English Publisher: Faber & Faber Now a BBC4 series showing in March 2012.When Edward VI - Henry VIIIs longed-for son - died in 1553. extraordinarily. there was no one left to claim the title King of England For the first time. all the contenders for the crown were female.In 1553. England was about to experience the monstrous regiment -. the unnatural rule -. of a woman But female rule in England also had a past. Four hundred years before Edwards death. Matilda. daughter of Henry I and granddaughter of William the Conquerer. came tantalisingly close to securing her hold on the power of the crown. And between the 12th and the 15th centuries three more exceptional women - Eleanor of Aquitaine. Isabella of France. and Margaret of Anjou - discovered. as queens consort and dowager. how much was possible if the presumptions of ma...