Eleanor de Montfort

Rezensionen / Stimmen

While the book achieves its goal of providing a biography of a previously neglected noblewoman, it also, intentionally or not, inspires much more, motivating scholars to analyze women's status as sisters, in addition to their positions as wives, widows, or mothers, to glean more information about the bases of women's political action . . . This modest biography of a single English princess opens the door to future examinations of the status and power of royal sisters. -- Katrin E. Sjursen, Southern Illinois University Edwardsville * Medieval Feminist Forum * ...this book is an important contribution to current scholarship. It clearly demonstrates that medieval aristocratic women were not the meek shadows of their husbands that they were once assumed to be. Eleanor was lively, impassioned, politically astute, and economically powerful. She was able to balance familial, political, and personal matters in a period of history when England was in upheaval. Eleanor's life and connections span both sides of the de Montfort rebellion, both chronologically and politically. This book will open the way for scholarly discussion of the life of this fascinating woman. -- Catherine Innes-Parker, University of Prince Edward Island * The Historian *