England's Queens: From Boudica to Elizabeth of York

by Elizabeth Norton

England has always been a place of queens. The earliest known lived nearly 2,000 years ago. Early queens, such as Boudica and Cartimandua, are historical figures, while others, such as Cordelia and Guinevere, are mythical. In both historical documents and romantic legends, the early queens of Britain played a prominent role, and this has never ceased to be the case. Nearly eighty women have sat on the throne of England, either as queen regnant or queen consort, and the voices of all of them survive through their writings and those of their contemporaries. For the first time, the voices of each individual queen can be heard. This volume charts the course of English queenship from our earliest named queen, the fierce Boudica, through the Anglo-Saxons, Normans, Plantagenets, to the queens of the Wars of the Roses and the woman whose marriage brought peace after years of conflict, Elizabeth of York.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Biography, Tudor Period, Womens, British Literature

273 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2015

About the author

Elizabeth Norton is a British historian specialising in the queens of England and the Tudor period. She obtained an Master of Arts in Archaeology and Anthropology from the University of Cambridge in 2003 and a masters degree in European Archaeology from the University of Oxford in 2004.

Elizabeth Norton is the author of five non-fiction works: She Wolves, The Notorious Queens of England (The History Press, 2008), Anne Boleyn, Henry VIII's Obsession (Amberley, 2008), Jane Seymour, Henry VIII's True Love (Amberley, 2009), Anne of Cleves, Henry VIII's Discarded Bride (Amberley, 2009) and Catherine Parr (Amberley, 2010).[2]' She is also the author of two articles: Anne of Cleves and Richmond Palace (Surrey History, 2009) [3] and Scandinavian Influences in the Late Anglo-Saxon Sculpture of Sussex (Sussex Archaeological Collections, 2009)

Reviews

[G. Lawrence · Rating 5 out of 5]

A quick, whistle-stop tour from Boudicca to Elizabeth of York. Enjoyable reading

[Ken Sampson · Rating 4 out of 5]

[21 Jun 2023] This compact book is a highly readable and accessible account of the Queens (or wives) of England's Monarchs from the Anglo-Saxons to the rise of the Tudors. It is well researched and easy to read, although it covers some very briefly indeed. The two things I would say - is that the use of medieval language for quotations was annoying and adds little (just give us the modern translation) and there are times that the author uses some platitudes - for instance, after loosing your husband and son of course, it 'would be a tough time.'

The usual helpful family trees are included, but as usual are in such small text that they are difficult to impossible to read. A highly enjoyable romp through English history, not in-depth or detailed - more of a edited highlights, but nonetheless an enjoyable book.

[Andrew Hurst · Rating 5 out of 5]

Considering the size of the undertaking this book was an excellent read. Thankfully genealogical tables were included as so many of the Anglo-Saxon queens had similar or identical names. It is certainly not a boring read and gives a wonderful overview of England's queens throughout history. It enables the reader to seek out further reading if you want greater depth on individual queens. The kindle version does not end with Elizabeth of York but carries the story through later queens to Elizabeth II.

[Emma Dargue · Rating 4 out of 5]

easy to read look at the Queen consorts from boudicca to Elizabeth of York Henry VII 's wife. interesting look at how the wives of Kings shaped each era in history and how they dealt with the various traumas that happened to them. continuing on with the second installment which goes from Catherine of aragon to the present. review for this coming soon.

[Helen · Rating 4 out of 5]

These are excellent books and discuss all Queens of England from early/mythical Queens, right down to Elizabeth II. There's a lot of information packed in and you really get a feel for who each woman was.
It's a great starting point if you want to know a little bit about all the recorded women who've sat on the throne in England. Nicely written & easy to read.

[Irene · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was very readable, fascinating book. A lot of meticulous research was done by the author and the result is an absorbing history.

[Maud · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this out of personal interest and because it would provide me with some extra background going into some of my culture/history classes.

If you are looking for a quick overview of all the queens of England this is not the right book because as you can see in the title it only goes until Elizabeth of York and no, this is not the current queen (or at least current as I'm writing this but given how long she has been on the throne there is a high chance she is still on it when you are reading my review).

If you are looking for a quick overview of all the queens from the beginning until the first Tudor king and queen you are looking at the right book. The chapters are separated into the royal dynasties (Early & Mystical, Anglo-Saxon, Norman, Plantagenet, Lancastrian, Yorkist) and give you a bit on their life before the queens married their kings, their family, if they had any political influence, their most important deeds, if they were close to the king, etc. You don't learn everything about them but just enough to get a grasp on who they were and how they influenced England. Because it was so short, you race through the book while also being super interested (or at least I was).

There are two reasons why I can't give this book 5 stars.
First, I would have liked it if the book had continued until Queen Elizabeth II. I don't understand why the author stopped before she reached her. There is a second book with the other queens but why couldn't it have been turned into one, bigger book? (https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2...)
Second, while there is a family tree included at the end of the book I still felt a bit confused with all the names and how they were related to each other. I would have preferred it if every queen or at least every time we started a new dynasty would have had a family tree. It would have made things clearer for me as I either didn't feel like flicking through the pages to the family tree or it took me out of the story.

[EK · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was an excellent, well-researched work that I hope Norton continues from Elizabeth of York onwards. Even the 'early Queens' with scant source material were well-explained, and she does a great job of putting each woman in context without overwhelming the reader.

I would like some of her source material extracts to be put alongside more analysis - I love that primary source quotes were included verbatim, but I think to make the book more accessible, some wider explanation of them would be good?

Overall a fabulous book that reads well cover-to-cover and will serve as an excellent reference text when needed - you can dip in and find the relevant Queen with plenty of detail. Absolutely loved it!

[Catherine Yarwood · Rating 4 out of 5]

England’s Queens have ranged from a footnote to a ‘she-wolf’. This is the first of two books offering up the history of every Queen of England, including mythical and Saxon Queens. It stops at the first Tudor Queen, Elizabeth Woodville.

The book is technically split up into chapters for each royal dynasty: ancient Briton, mythical, Saxon, Norman, Plantagenet, Lancaster and Yorkist. However, this isn’t a book I would describe as broken down into digestible chunks. It doesn’t feel like there are many rest points, it just keeps going. An endless onslaught of the history of English Queens. I loved it.

Each Queen’s entire life is covered, where the information is available. The information about the Saxon Queens in particular was completely new to me. I have previously read a similar book, but it just covered the names of the Queens and who they were married to and where they may be buried. This carried much more research and context and offered up a picture of a personality.

This is well written, very comprehensive and easy to sail through. I can’t wait to read the next installment, taking off where this one ends - Katharine of Aragon.

[Morgan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hmm. I’ve wanted and desired a collection on England’s early queens for quite sometime so when I stumbled across this of course I had to read it.

What I found was a book that was both slow and fast, and a book that was both factual and inaccurate.

You heard that right there are two inaccuracies I found while reading this.
One: Page 149. Eleanor of Castile’s mother is NOT the daughter of Alys of France she is her granddaughter.
Two: Page 241. Elizabeth of York did in fact die on her birthday NOT the day before.

So yeah, this book helped fill in the gaps for me on lesser known queens in my wheel house especially the Anglo Saxon queens. I hope to find enjoyment in the second book of this series. But for now I’m going to take a break and climb Mt. Everest in a book.

I hope that Alison Weir’s Queen books fair better when I get around to them, and I might have to re-examine Lisa Hilton’s Queen book now to see if that’s any better than I originally thought.

Read if you want to learn more about queens, don’t read if you don’t like your history inaccurate or lengthy stories on some queens and shorter on others (Here’s looking at you Elizabeth of York).

[Lauren · Rating 3 out of 5]

As someone who is fascinated by both women's and royal history this book is perfect.
The book is fast paced which means that you won't get bogged down in long pointless paragraphs however I feel as if we're treated to a basic history of these women. Of course due to the size of the book and the number of women mentioned this is to be expected.
Even though it was a short book it took me a some time to read through it. This was mainly due to the fact that it kept on jumping back and forward in time when going into the characters history bwfore becoming queen and with some characters sharing certain time periods. This is mainly shown during the first half of the book.
I was pleasantly surprised by this book. There are several women that I haven't heard before reading this book and would definitely like to learn more about.

[Éowyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting overview from the early and mythical queens right up to Elizabeth of York.

Overall I enjoyed it, but the later chapters I found disappointing. Probably because my own historical knowledge is stronger there, but I thought the later chapters were a rehash of something from books a few years out of date and a few things were plain wrong (e.g. Elizabeth Woodville did not have a big funeral).