Queens at War

The tumultuous period in English history that marked the end of the medieval era and the rise of the Tudors comes to stunning life in the final volume of the four-part series, filled with dramatic true stories, chronicling the five Plantagenet queens who ruled England from 1400 to 1485.

The fifteenth century was a turbulent age of transition and aggression. All five of the ruling queens were caught up in battles that changed the course of their lives: wars between France, Navarre, and Brittany; the Hundred Years War between England and France; and the English civil wars, known as the Wars of the Roses, between the royal Houses of Lancaster and York. 

Against this dramatic backdrop, Alison Weir describes the lives and reigns of five queen consorts: Joan of Navarre was happily married to King Henry IV, but was accused of witchcraft by Henry's heir and imprisoned. Paris-born Katherine of Valois's political marriage to Henry V was meant to bring peace between England and France. It didn't, and Henry died on the battlefield without ever seeing his newborn heir, Henry VI, who was wed to another French princess, Margaret of Anjou, in 1445. A decade later the Wars of the Roses began, and Margaret had to endure the murder of her husband and son. Henry's successor, Edward IV, made a secret marriage for love to Elizabeth Wydeville, mother of the tragic Princes in the Tower. The notorious King Richard III usurped Edward's throne and married Anne Neville for her fortune, then mentally hounded this last medieval queen to an early death.

"Underpinned by extensive reading of original sources" (The Washington Post), Weir's series strips away centuries of historical mythologizing to shed light on the genuine accomplishments and bravery of these fascinating female monarchs. Queens at War brings the Medieval Queens series to an action-packed close. Alison Weir is the New York Times bestselling author of The Last White Rose and the novels in the Six Tudor Queens series: Katharine Parr, The Sixth Wife; Katheryn Howard, The Scandalous Queen; Anna of Kleve, The Princess in the Portrait; Jane Seymour, The Haunted Queen; Anne Boleyn, A King's Obsession; and Katherine of Aragon, The True Queen, as well as numerous earlier novels. She has also written historical biographies that include her four-volume series, England's Medieval Queens.