Queens of the Conquest

The lives of England's medieval queens were packed with incident—love, intrigue, betrayal, adultery, and warfare—but their stories have been largely obscured by centuries of myth and moralizing. Now, in the first volume of an exciting new series, bestselling author and esteemed biographer Alison Weir provides a fresh perspective and restores these women to their rightful place in history.
Spanning the years from the Norman conquest in 1066 to the dawn of a new era in 1154, when Eleanor of Aquitaine, the first Plantagenet queen, was crowned, this epic book brings to vivid life five queens: Matilda of Flanders, wife of William the Conqueror, the first Norman king; Matilda of Scotland, revered as "the common mother of all England"; Adeliza of Louvain, the young beauty whom the aging Henry I married to get an heir; Matilda of Boulogne, one of the most desirable brides in Europe, who fought a war on behalf of her husband, King Stephen, against the Empress Maud,...