The Last Medieval Queens: English Queenship 1445 - 1503

by J.L. Laynesmith

The last medieval queens of England were Margaret of Anjou, Elizabeth Woodville, Anne Neville, and Elizabeth of York - four very different women whose lives and queenship were dominated by the Wars of the Roses. This book is not a traditional biography but a thematic study of the ideology and practice of queenship. It examines the motivations behind the choice of the first English-born queens, the multi-faceted rituals of coronation, childbirth, and funeral, the divided loyalties between family and king, and the significance of a position at the heart of the English power structure that could only be filled by a woman. It sheds new light on the queens' struggles to defend their children's rights to the throne, and argues that ideologically and politically a queen was integral to the proper exercise of mature kingship in this period.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Medieval, British Literature, Biography, Medieval History, Research

312 pages, Hardcover

First published April 4, 2004

Reviews

[Lisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Last Medieval Queens is a thematic, not biographic, study of the queens of the Wars of the Roses – Margaret of Anjou, Elizabeth Woodville, Anne Neville and Elizabeth of York – looking at what was expected from queens and how each of these four women exercised the office through an era of much political upheaval and uncertainty. This is an erudite, fascinating study of queenship produced when queenship studies was still in its infancy and in the twenty or so years since its publication, the field has come a long way and interest in these queens have only grown, as has what we know about them.

The scarcity of evidence around Anne Neville’s life and the brevity of her queenship means that it’s often the other three queens who garner the most attention. This is unfortunate but out of Laynesmith’s control. It is likely unsurprising that Margaret of Anjou and Elizabeth Woodville are given the most focus – there is a lot more evidence and ‘meat’ to there to discuss – while Elizabeth of York is by no means neglected, even if Laynesmith’s conclusions on her treatment by Henry VII feel somewhat harsh.

As I said, this is thematic study, not biographic, and while insight on each queen is gained, the focus is not on the individual personalities but the institution of queenship. We get little sense of what Margaret, Anne or the Elizabeths were “really like”, though some would argue that is an impossibility at such a great distance. Additionally, Laynesmith’s analysis allows for these queens to break away from the stereotypes they’ve often been cast in by popular history and historical fiction (for instance, Margaret as the “she-wolf”, Elizabeth Woodville as the femme fatale) – we may not “know them” but they feel more real and complex.

There are, however, some flaws. Laynesmith asserts that intercession had ceased to be a central part of queenship by this time but does not explain how she came to this conclusion. While it does seem that the public performance of intercession (such as Philippa of Hainault interceding with Edward III for the burghers of Calais or Anne of Bohemia interceding with Richard II for the city of London) had ceased by the very end of the medieval period, Laynesmith’s own work records acts of intercession by at least two of her queens. Nor does Laynesmith expand on her point to suggest why intercession, or its public performance, had ceased to be a visible and central part of queenship.

I was somewhat surprised that Laynesmith’s focus was so solidly on her four queens, rather than looking at how they might have functioned alongside other noblewomen, particularly women such as Cecily Neville and Margaret Beaufort who could be considered “quasi-queens” (as Laynesmith indeed has suggested in her later work) during the Wars of the Roses.

Finally, The Last Medieval Queens was published over twenty years ago and as I noted above, both the field of queenship studies and our knowledge of these queens and the broader Wars of the Roses have come a long way since its publication. This, of course is natural and unavoidable and does not negate its usefulness, and easily remedied by reading it alongside Later Plantagenet and the Wars of the Roses Consorts: Power, Influence, and Dynasty (though the chapter by Anne Carson is very outdated, still possessing the same problems Laynesmith criticised in 2004).

The Last Medieval Queens is a fascinating and necessary study of medieval queenship, well worth the read.

[Doris Raines · Rating 3 out of 5]

I LIKE THIS BOOK.

[Diana McCutcheon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Late medieval period - had a little information on St Margaret, but not much since she was an early medieval period queen

[Helene Harrison · Rating 2 out of 5]

Review? - I think this book was quite informative, but it did seem to be a bit higgeldy piggeldy in places, jumping between several different things within the same paragraph. I think that the thematic way is a clever way to write, in order to draw out more comparisons between the people discussed. However, I don't think that it was done as well in this book as it could have been. At times I was quite confused. If you can muddle through some sections, it is quite informative, but not if you don't really concentrate on it.

General Subject/s? - History / Biography / Wars of the Roses / Medieval

Recommend? – Maybe

Rating? - 14/20

[Nicole · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic book about the four examples and queenship in general.

[Dean Top · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book has been great for my dissertation.