Philippa of Hainault: Mother of the English Nation

by Kathryn Warner

Philippa of Hainault: Mother of the English Nation is the first full-length biography of the queen who stood in the middle of the some of the most dramatic events in English history. Philippa's marriage was arranged in order to provide ships and mercenaries for her mother-in-law to invade her father-in-law's kingdom in 1326, yet it became one of the most successful royal marriages in English history and endured for more than four decades. The chronicler Jean Froissart described her as 'The most gentle Queen, most liberal, and most courteous that ever was Queen in her days.' Philippa stood by her husband's side as he began a war against her uncle, Philip VI of France, and claimed his throne. She frequently accompanied him to Scotland, France and Flanders. She also acted as regent in 1346 when Edward was away from his kingdom at the time of a Scottish invasion, and appeared on horseback to rally the English army to victory. Philippa became popular with the people due to her kindness and compassion, demonstrated when she sought pity for the Burghers of Calais and persuaded King Edward to spare their lives. This popularity helped maintain peace in England throughout Edward's reign. Her son, later known as the Black Prince, became one of the greatest warriors of the Middle Ages.

Genres: History, Biography, Nonfiction, British Literature, Biography Memoir, Medieval, Historical

320 pages, Hardcover

First published October 15, 2019

About the author

I grew up in the north of England, and hold two degrees in medieval history and literature from the University of Manchester. I have run a blog about King Edward II (reigned 1307 to 1327) since 2005, have had work published about him in the prestigious academic journal the English Historical Review (founded 1886) and in the academic essay collection Fourteenth-Century England, and have appeared talking about him in the BBC documentary Quest for Bannockburn. I also appeared in a documentary about Edward II shown on the German-French TV channel Arte in late 2019, and have given a paper about him at the International Medieval Congress at the University of Leeds.

My first book, titled Edward II: The Unconventional King, was released in October 2014, and my biography of Edward II's queen Isabella of France (c. 1295-1358) was published in March 2016. My third book is an account of Edward's murder in 1327 or survival past that year, which came out in June 2017, and my fourth is a bio of Edward II's great-grandson Richard II, published October 2017. My fifth book, Blood Roses, came out in October 2018, and is an account of the royal houses of Lancaster and York from 1245 to 1399. My sixth was also published in October 2018 and is a biography of Edward II's malevolent favourite Hugh Despenser the Younger. My next two books came out in 2019: a travel guide to places in the UK associated with Edward II, called Following in the Footsteps of Edward II, and a biography of Edward III's queen Philippa of Hainault. A joint bio of Edward II's nieces Eleanor, Margaret and Elizabeth de Clare came out in February 2020, and a work of social history called Living in Medieval England: The Turbulent Year of 1326 was also published that year, A book about the Despenser family from 1261 to 1439 will come next, and a bio of Edward III's son/Henry IV's father John of Gaunt, second duke of Lancaster, is due out in 2021.

Projects I'm working on are: a joint bio of Edward II's five sisters; a joint bio of Edward III's granddaughters; a social history of London between 1300 and 1350; and a book about the medieval Beaumont family. And I'm sure there'll be plenty more after that!

Reviews

[Lisa · Rating 3 out of 5]

As the beloved queen-consort and wife of Edward III, Philippa of Hainault lived through the disastrous rule of Isabella of France and Roger Mortimer, Edward’s overthrow of his mother and Mortimer, the beginnings of the Hundred Years War and the Black Death. She gave birth to twelve children, including Edward the Black Prince and John of Gaunt, and outlived seven of them.

Kathryn Warner’s Philippa of Hainault: Mother of the English Nation is the first biography of this remarkable queen since 1910’s Philippa of Hainault and Her Times by B. C. Hardy. As such, it is more than welcome and Warner is a reliable, engaging historian that creates a readable narrative.

I did, however, wonder if the evidence of Philippa’s life was suited to a conventional biography. In fairness, this quite short – including two appendices and excluding the notes, bibliography and index, Warner’s biography comes to 276 pages which stands in stark contrast to the bricks written about Philippa’s husband. But sometimes I felt Philippa got rather lost in the narrative Warner was writing and I suspect this is due to the evidence of Philippa’s life and queenship being maybe not as easy to decode and work into a conventional biography. Perhaps an approach more like Christopher Allmand’s biography of Henry V or Jeannette Lucraft’s Katherine Swynford where a conventional biography is married with thematic analysis would have worked better.

I was fairly surprised at how little a role the Hundred Years War played in this narrative. There are blink-and-miss-it references to the Battles of Crécy and Poitiers and the Treaty of Brétigny and you’d be easily forgiven for not realising that the Hundred Years War was a major event of Philippa’s life and Edward III’s reign based on Warner’s account. Perhaps this more military history than biographical but this was a major event in Philippa and her husband’s lives and you could easily not realise it was going on.

I was also surprised that there was no genealogy table for Edward III and Philippa’s children and their descendants – this isn’t a major issue as one of the appendices contains a list of their children in birth order with a brief biographical sketch, but I found it odd.

As other reviewers noted, Warner does repeat herself which may be helpful for readers unfamiliar with this time period but for me, it was repetitive and unnecessary. I also found that the structure needed refining – at times we seemed to jump around in time and not just for “later, this person would marry that person” references but in terms of the narrative Warner was writing.

On the whole, I enjoyed reading this and it reinforces for me that the reign of Edward III is deeply fascinating and one I need to study in more detail. There are weaknesses in Warner’s biography but it’s likely this is due to the quality of evidence available and in the end, Philippa of Hainault: Mother of the English Nation is a solid biography.

[Kate Parr · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really enjoyed this biography of one of England's lesser-known queens. Given the little material available Warner has done a great job of finding evidence of Philippa's life and personality:what comes through is a loving, dependable woman who enjoyed an unexpectedly close bond with her husband after their arranged marriage. I love the descriptions of her lavish spending and what must have been slightly embarrassing debts, her fortitude, accompanying her husband on his quest for the French crown, and the little details about her household and daily life that put some meat on the bones. I was also interested in the author's arguments about dates, siblings and critical analysis of other sources: I have to go away and amend my family tree of Philippa to remove the spurious William of Windsor. My only criticism is that it is a little repetitive with the author not always trusting us to remember what she said a couple of pages earlier, and it would have been really helpful to have the dramatis personae in alphabetical order so I could find who I was looking for! Otherwise an excellent biography and I look forward to her treatment of Richard II.

[Sophie ☕️ · Rating 2 out of 5]

I don’t usually write many reviews on books but I definitely have something to say about the amount of repetition in this book which was very frustrating, and the years kept jumping around. There were long descriptions of who was related to who without a family tree included in the book which was confusing! However, I did enjoy reading more about Philippa and her Hainault family, and the circumstance in which she was married to Edward.

[Melisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was very interesting. It had a lot of information that I did not know about the lives of the royal family at this time. They went through so many different difficulties in their lives, yet there was joy as well. I didn't find it at all dry or hard to read, it only took me so long because I didn't have as much reading time as usual.

[Pam Shelton-Anderson · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a very good biography of Philippa of Hainault. Like most women of the era, her life is of necessity told through the reign and life of her husband, Edward III, but this well-researched story of her life highlighted the many records we have of Philippa herself. It was very easy to read, though there was at least one incomplete sentence (Kindle loc 1002 "celebrations for her impending."). There was a lot of repetition of facts for the same people scattered around which I found a bit distracting. A pedigree of the children and grandchildren of Edward III and Philippa would have been helpful though the appendix had a nice blurb about the progeny. All in all, I very much enjoyed this biography.

[Cathy Les · Rating 3 out of 5]

I do wish someone had edited out all of the repetition. Sentences such as: "The king made his and Philippa's son Edward of Woodstock Prince of Wales..." are annoying. I think that by page 162 the reader knows who Edward of Woodstock was. However, I thank the author for statements like: "Whatever Philippa's private opinion of long-dead misogynistic saints who apparently despised half of humanity..." (The monks of Durham Cathedral didn't want the Queen to stay at their priory because St. Cuthbert, their patron saint, didn't like women.) I was glad to finally have a book about Queen Philippa herself rather than trying to find information in a biography of Edward III.

[Susan Grimshaw · Rating 3 out of 5]

Much of interest in this book about a loyal and loving Queen Consort, but irritatingly full of endless repetition and speculation. Obviously it is difficult to find a lot of information about someone who lived so long ago, but half this book is padded out by saying so much twice or more, over and over.

[Heidi Malagisi · Rating 4 out of 5]

In medieval England, the queens were almost as famous, or infamous, as their husbands. In most cases, they came from royal backgrounds and their sons would become kings. That, however, was the case for Philippa of Hainault, the wife of King Edward III. She tends to be forgotten when it comes to discussing her famous husband, her infamous mother-in-law Isabella of France, and her sons whose children would go on to shape English history forever. That is until now. Kathryn Warner has decided to discover the truth about this rather remarkable woman in her latest biography, “Philippa of Hainault: Mother of the English Nation”.

I would like to thank Amberley Publishing for sending me a copy of this informative biography. It looked rather intriguing and this was the first time that I have read a book by Kathryn Warner. This was an absolute joy to read.

Warner begins by explaining Philippa of Hainault’s immediate family. As a queen, she had a rather unusual upbringing since she was the daughter of Willem, Count of Hainault and Holland and his wife Jeanne de Valois (whose brothers and sisters would be kings and queens throughout Europe). Philippa’s husband was Edward III, whose parents were King Edward II and Isabella of France (who did not get along at all, especially over the issue of Hugh Despenser). Philippa and Edward III came from rather different backgrounds, but they were married so that Philippa’s father could help Isabella of France with her invasion of England, which resulted in the abdication of her husband and her son becoming the new King of England. An unusual reason to get married, but it actually worked rather well.

Isabella of France and her partner in crime, Roger Mortimer, were hoping that Edward III was going to be like a puppet king, but they were wrong. Edward III did things his own way, wife his beloved wife Philippa by his side. While Edward III was taking care of domestic and foreign issues, Philippa was raising their large family. Their sons and daughters included Edward of Woodstock “The Black Prince”, Isabella of Woodstock, Lionel of Antwerp, John of Gaunt, Edmund of Langley, and Thomas of Woodstock. Although they did have a large family, none of their children would become King or Queen of England; it would be Edward of Woodstock’s son, Edward and Philippa’s grandson, Richard of Bordeaux who would become King Richard II. It was the descendants of Edward and Philippa’s sons and daughters that would go and shape the conflict that would be known as the Wars of the Roses.

Another lasting legacy of Edward III was the beginning of a conflict between England and France that would be known as the Hundred Years War. It started when Edward III declared war on Philippa’s maternal uncle King Philip VI of France. Talk about family drama. But family drama was nothing new for Philippa since she was connected to many kings, queens, emperors, and empresses throughout Europe through marriage and there were times where her husband would get into disagreements with her extended family. That was the nature of medieval Europe, but it never affected her relationship with Edward III. Around this time, the Black Death was beginning to leave its mark on Europe, hitting many families including Edward III and Philippa of Hainault’s children.

Kathryn Warner brought Philippa of Hainault into the spotlight that she deserved with a delightful plethora of details combined with an eloquent writing style. Warner does repeat facts in her book, but as someone who is a novice in studying this time period, it was rather useful for me to have her repeat these facts. I enjoyed this book immensely and it really helped me understand her story and the legacy that her family left behind for England and for Europe. If you want a great book about Philippa of Hainault and her family, I highly recommend you read, “Philippa of Hainault: Mother of the English Nation” by Kathryn Warner.

[Richard Sisson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting and somewhat engaging, but also disappointing.

The author had published extensively on fourteenth century England and is said to be an expert on King Edward II. It’s clear she knows her subject well but the style of her writing in this book was quite off-putting. The text was convoluted, dense and very repetitive. The author crammed so much detail (date of birth, age, title, relationships) into most sentences and paragraphs that it was often difficult to follow the narrative. While such information is useful, a lot of the detail would have been better placed in footnotes. Often the detail doesn’t lead anywhere, leaving one waiting for the analysis or, more often, wondering why it was included. Although the text was organized chronologically, the chronology jumped around a lot, again affecting the flow of the narrative. The text of each chapter often seemed barely related to the title. Sadly, it’s a collection of facts, often reiterated several times. There are also inconsistencies - the Duke of Brabant is Jan III in some chapters and John III in others.

On the positive side, the author does identify and debunk several ‘facts’, events and stories as myths and misconceptions, noting that some continue to be perpetuated in recently published works. For example, she doesn’t refer to Edward the Black Prince, but to Edward of Woodstock, pointing out that the nickname developed in the sixteenth century and was certainly never used in his lifetime. Similarly, she points out that not only was Queen Philippa not pregnant when the burghers of Calais submitted to Edward III, but that there is no evidence that she interceded with the king to show them mercy. Her treatment of Queen Isabella is balanced and she dispels most of the claims made about her and points out that she lived at liberty in the Kingdom of England for over 20 years after Edward took power and that he visited her frequently.

It’s not clear why the author chose to give the book the subtitle “Mother of the English Nation”. If there was a reference to it in the text it was but fleeting. There were no Introduction, no conclusion, no assessment of Philippa’s influence and contribution and little analysis but quite a bit of speculation.

In summary this book could be described as the births, deaths, marriages, and ages of the royalty and nobility of fourteenth century England and Western Europe at the time of the latter two events - young and very young respectively - with a particular emphasis on the ties (ie relationships) between them. Worthy but could have been much better written.

[John Sinclair · Rating 4 out of 5]

BOOK REVIEW ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

As historical biographies go, this was pretty good, even with limitations: the records of medieval kings can be scanty. Reconstructing a life from the scattered remnants of history us challenging, particularly about the period before his reign began. Births are not always recorded, but there is more to be seen in proclamations, laws, parliaments, treaties, and records of war and peace. So we have a pretty good record of Edward III. But the life of medieval women, including queens, and this remarkable queen in specific is often shadowy. Many assumptions are made: “if the king was there, she might also have been. She must have felt...” Such is the case of much of this book, but enough remains to paint a picture of Philippa that for me at least filled in some gaps. The Plantagenets were a fractious clan. This period is one of the precursors to the War of the Roses that followed 100 years later. So it was interesting to me in setting larger history in context. But I’m weird. #bibliophile #book #bookish #booklover #books #books2021 #booksofinstagram #bookstagram #bookworm #goodreads #instabook #instabooks #reader #readers #reading #readingroom #readersofinstagram #bookreview

[Susan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this biography of Philippa of Hainault, wife of Edward III, mother of the Black Prince, John of Gaunt and a further 10 children. Bearing in mind the relatively scant evidence available, Kathryn Warner managed to pull together a full biography of a well loved wife and extravagant spender with telling insights into the closeness of the family and life and practices of the time. It was also interesting to hear about Philippa's birth family with a European perspective rather than simply from the English accounts.

[Soph · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's not easy to write about women in the medieval period, even very important ones are ghosts in the archival sources. This reads more like an almanac of Philippa's life than a biography. Repetitive and confusing (which could have been cleaned up by a good editor) my overwhelming sense of Philippa was of indolence and excessive spending and I'm not sure that was the effect Warner was going for.

[Philippa Stevens · Rating 3 out of 5]

Obviously a very well researched book and accessibly written. However, I didn’t think there was as much focus on Philippa as I was hoping. Lots about her relatives. I enjoyed it, but didn’t feel I knew much more about her as a person at the end.

[Lora · Rating 5 out of 5]

Detailed book about all the major players during Philippians life.


The book is a detailed and intimate biography of Philippa and Edward III' s marriage. it also covers all the major players in their lives and surrounding countries. Really enjoyed this book.

[Hollyhocks · Rating 5 out of 5]

Such a great read. New prospective on someone noone really writes about. Fantastic!!!!

[Katia Wright · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not bad overview of Philippa's life but lacks any analysis of her queenship and success as Edward's consort

[Jos dujardin · Rating 2 out of 5]

factual correct

But written in a boring way. The two largest events of that time, Crecy and Poitiers, get each a paragraph.

[Lisa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent biography. There's so much to learn about medieval women, especially queens. Kathryn Warner paints a vivid picture of a medieval queen. Loved it.

[Amy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really liked how this book was written and very informative too.

[``Laurie · Rating 3 out of 5]

More thorough genealogical tables would have been helpful.