A fantastic collection of powerful women who’s details were left out of history mainly because history was recorded by men. But any history buff knows women are the ones who have changed the world and the lineage of who takes the throne. As much as I love reading (and listening) nonfiction such as this I’m a very happy to be a woman in modern times.
This novel could be twice as long and still introduce you into “new” some. For instance…how much do you know about Italy’s Queens? Exactly
I did find the audio version a little slow , dry in tone often, but not to where I wouldn’t recommend it.

"... historians rarely look for the women. But when we do, they are easy to find. They step out of the woodwork of history, ready to take their place"
A promising subject but let down by lack of clarity and organisation.

Medieval Women’s History is my specialist subject and was the area which I covered for my PhD, so I’m interested in any book about them. What I liked about this book was that it explored the lives of women who are usually ignored, such as mistresses and concubines, and the basis of their relationships with the Kings and Princes. Agnes Sorel and Katherine Sywnford are some of the most famous mistresses in French history, Inês de Castro is a woman I had never heard of.

The book also explores the nature of the power and influence these women had, and how society responded to it. It wasn’t their status as mistresses with was the problem, but when they tried to take the role of Queens as intercessors or influencing royal policy.

The bad: The only downside of this book (for me) was the assumption that many of the women included had been intentionally written out of history. I disagree with the idea that there has some kind of deliberate conspiracy to erase women for thousands of years. If Queens and even mistresses aren’t prominent in the historical record, it because of how history was written in the past. Great Lords, peasants and others are not generally included in the records either.

Thanks to Pen and Sword Books for approving my request for this title on Netgalley. All opinions are my own and freely given.

I read this ARC for an honest review
All thoughts and opinions are mine

Wonderful
well researched
I was engrossed

This book focuses on women’s role in the medieval court. The book does not have very few information that has not already been covered by other scholars. The historical figures are already those that have often been discussed before. Still, this was a very comprehensive work for the general reader. I recommend this for fans of Alison Weir, Melanie Clegg, and Antonia Fraser.

Despite a plethora of books about well-known medieval women that have been published over the past decade or two, the average person often gets the impression that these women were exceptions to a rule that kept most of their sisters compliant (however reluctantly) and constrained. In Women in the Medieval Court, Rebecca Holdorph sets out to rectify the balance.

Holdorph has chosen to organize her book by categories (noblewomen, consorts, reigning queens, and concubines/mistresses) rather than chronologically, and this system works quite well. She chooses several women from each category and then deals with them as a group, comparing them in the various stages of their lives as well as the strategies they used to deal with common challenges and the degree of success they achieved. As is to be expected, some were not successful or were for a limited time, until they were deposed or murdered. She also notes where their lives intersect, both with each other and with those within the other categories. Many of those who were contemporaries also knew each other, often from opposite sides of a political divide, such as Cecily Neville and Margaret of Anjou. I particularly liked the fact that she dealt not only with the better-known women from England, and to a lesser degree, France, but also with others from Spain to Kyiv and from Scandinavia to Italy. I found those from the Iberian peninsula to be particularly interesting, not only due to my lesser knowledge of them but also the somewhat way in which governing was handled there as more of a family enterprise, which enabled these women to work more effectively with male relatives, which of course all of them had to do to some extent.

I received a copy of Women in the Medieval Court from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

In Women in the Medieval Court: Consorts and Concubines, Rebecca Holdorph examines the ways in which aristocratic women wielded power in the medieval political system, focusing on their roles as noblewomen, queen consorts, ruling queens and as powerful men’s concubines. Illustrated using examples of a wide range of women, this book explores the limitations and dangers of wielding power but also illuminates the fact that many women could and did wield significant power.

I have some mixed feelings about this work. The stated intent behind Women in the Medieval Court is fantastic and exiting and Holdorph’s analysis is insightful, particularly in later chapters. There hasn’t been much work published on medieval mistresses/concubines as a whole so Holdorph’s final section was particularly exciting to read.

The breadth of examples cited help prove Holdorph’s thesis and they also introduce readers to a number of relatively obscure but fascinating, even badass, medieval women. I’d never heard about Matilda of Tuscany before, for example, and she was fascinating. I applaud Holdorph for including women from European contexts instead of drawing exclusively from England. There is also breadth in the dates – the earliest women come from the eleventh century, the latest the fifteenth (including one who died in sixteenth) ¬– meaning there’s a span of about 500 years through which we can truly see that medieval women played significant roles in their society. A cast of characters is provided for each section which allows the women to remain easily memorable but the shifts in discussing each women are fluid and don’t confuse.

However, I couldn’t help but wonder whether the book would be stronger if Holdorph focused in on women of the same geographical location and era. There are differences between each medieval nation and much changed within the five hundred years span, meaning that it can be
difficult to make any strong conclusions about medieval women’s lives and roles. This is especially an issue in the first section on noblewomen where the examples are so varied that there isn’t really a sense of what power a noblewoman could wield and the roles and duties they were meant to perform. It improves in the later sections where Holdorph talks more about what was expected from queen consorts, ruling queens and concubines, and there is at least a lot of academic work done on medieval queenship that Holdorph can draw on. However, if the book had focused on, say, women in late fourteenth century England, I can’t help but wonder if this would give us a more thorough and complete view of how women wielded power, what was expected from them and how they fulfilled and failed these expectations, while also proving that these women were not the “exceptional few” (and, to be honest, some of Holdorph’s examples are women in incredibly exceptional circumstances and positions). I’m not sure if this would make a better book or make Holdorph’s point better, it’s just a possibility that I wondered about.

This takes me onto the next issue I had with Women in the Medieval Court: the referencing. Holdorph admits in her introduction that in wanting to include such varied examples, she relied heavily on the work of other scholars and was limited to women who have been the focus of research already. This isn’t necessarily a big issue – this is a book aimed at a general audience, not an academic study – but I did have a habitual cringe when I looked at the references and saw the same biography cited over and over again. However, the biographies cited are by excellent scholars (e.g. Tracy Adams’ The Life and Afterlife of Isabeau of Bavaria, Helen Maurer’s Margaret of Anjou) and when Holdorph does cover women in her own area of study (14th century England) and the references were all primary sources.

These quibbles were very small. Overall, I felt this book was an excellent read and I appreciated that it introduced me to medieval women I had previously known nothing of or had known only a little about them. I was overjoyed, for instance, at the coverage of Margrete of Denmark who I had heard of but couldn’t find much about.

One final note: I received an ARC from the publishers via Netgalley for review but ended up purchasing the book due to formatting problems. I noted that a lot of reviews on GoodReads mentioned typos, missing words, poor grammar, etc. in the ARC. This was not the case in the hardback edition.

Interesting read on women in the medieval times. Most of the names are ones that you will recognize as you read through, but good overall.

I would recommend this to those who are newer to reading on medieval times, or for those who are trying to get a little more information on a particular person.

Women in the Medieval Court provides a detailed look into stand out women in the middles ages and their role in royal courts. This books highlights famed queens, noblewomen, abbesses and courtesans' and looked at how their wielded power and authority.

Great overview of the period that I read for pleasure and then referred to for dissertation studies. Will recommend to general readers with interest in the period

This book was far more than I expected! Rebecca Holdorph does not only give biographical data on a number of well known and rather unknown women of the middle ages, but really dives deep into their live stories to point out, where they came from, how they came into power in all their roles as wifes, mothers, regents or lovers. There is so much to explore and to learn from this book.

Unfortunately - not for me.


What I did conclude from reading this work was there was nothing new for me personally - I didn't take away anything from this. All examples were already well known to me, as I have studied the lives of many of these women and have read extensively in this area. There were many times I wanted to give up on this book, however, the hope that I might find some nugget worthy of my time kept me going. There was no pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.

Secondly and most notably, the cast of characters is very Eurocentric - there were no examples from the history annals of Asia, Africa, or Eurasia - and the women selected were decidedly Christian in religion, with no Hindu, Muslim, Shinto or other religion being included.

Another thing that annoyed me the most was the use of names or rather a strange variant of name - if you are going to introduce your reading public to lesser known historical figures, then stick with the common usage of their names, or you will lose your reader that much more sooner.

I will say this, however, Holdorph's book could be considered more of a primer for someone just cutting their teeth on this subject - however, there are many other worthy tomes out there that have covered this subject matter of much more effectively and efficiently.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me a copy of this book for my review. The book is a history of women in the medieval times. The history written during this time is usually about the kings and nobility. The reputation for women was subservient to there males. However, this book takes the stories of several women and describes how they were able thru detailed historic accounts were able to turn the tides and use the mans power for their own gain.
It honestly is a book for people interested in medieval history. Also, study of women during the Middle Ages. It was a bit dry for me. I was also confused by so many characters cross referenced at the same time. But I managed to get thru it.
Obviously the author has spent a good bit of time doing the research. It does tell a different side of history from the women’s point of view.

If your interested in Medieval History or women in history this is a book you definitely want to read!! Very informative and interesting!

If you are a medieval enthusiast, fan of women's history, or generally looking to learn about the power dynamics between women and men in medieval society, WOMEN IN THE MEDIEVAL COURT is for you. Holdorph expertly categorizes women based on their lives and gives a generous insight into their lives, their rules, their troubles, and their romantic lives.

Compared to other histories I have recently read, this one came up a little dry but I definitely enjoyed brushing up on women's history and even learned about a few new players on the European chessboard that is medieval politics and monarchies. If you are interested in this topic, I definitely recommend this book to you.

This was a really interesting read , we are taught that the woman in Medieval Court were at the wim of the men in power, wives, daughters and sisters, love interests or servants, . However, they played a far bigger role and we’re more powerful and influencial than history (written by men) gives them credit for.
This is a well researched and thoroughly interesting book, those interested in history or just in women, feminism will find great interest in, I thoroughly recommend this for anyone interested in history and the unwritten histories we never get to hear from the texts written by men of the past.

Thanks to netgalley and the publisher for a free copy for an honest opinion

This book does an excellent job of not only bringing history to life, but its context. Holdorph does a beautiful job of highlighting the differences of authority and power, and how women wielded the latter. She paints quite the picture of some of these women and their effect on history, as well as those around them. A must for any history buff!

Holdorph asserts that women have always played a meaningful part on the historical stage, and that it is only the implicit male bias of the patriarchal societies in which they lived that creates the erroneous impression that women were relegated solely to the kitchen and the birthing chamber. This book is intended to be a study of how medieval women wielded their power and agency, whether or not it derived from formal authority.

The book is divided into four sections: noblewomen, consorts, reigning queens, concubines. These are concisely introduced and cross-referenced at the beginning of each section so that readers can tell at a glance who is contemporaneous with whom. In her writing, Holdorph does switch between the women she discusses with a pleasing, natural-seeming flow not often found in nonfiction, though it does mean she occasionally rehashes ground she’s already covered. She relates the figures to one another thematically while also making clear their chronological relationships, which is helpful.

Holdorph acknowledges that her book is one of broad strokes, particularly when it comes to figures outside of England, and that is certainly true. The book simultaneously aims to introduce nascent historians with the basic facts of life for medieval women as well as to introduce new individuals and material for readers who are more familiar with the era and its key players. Unfortunately, the less familiar faces are given a good deal less page time than their English counterparts. It would be easy to claim that this unequal treatment is due to a lack of contemporary materials to use in research, but the author already explained how that dearth is illusory if one is willing to read closely and make informed inferences.

The mind-bogglingly complex relationships and marriages involved might have been clarified by the inclusion of family trees in the notes or appendices, and in fact one is provided for the English royal family during the Wars of the Roses and another for the kingdoms of Castile and León, but this leaves out a grand number of the key players named in the text. The thing is, if I were not a thorough reader, I might not have discovered these family trees, as they were located after the notes and references. Nevertheless, Holdorph did supply a number of relevant images, including the Cyrillic signature of Anna of Kiev on a state document, a photo of one of the Eleanor Crosses, portraits, and various contemporary images from manuscripts.

A quibble: there seems to be an error where Queen Esther is said to be married to King Mordecai, who was in fact her uncle and not her husband, in Chapter 4 (Esther was wed to King Ahasuerus). There are a few minor errata (typos and the like) which occur in this chapter which I’m certain will have been eradicated by the time of publication.

Despite my above quibble, students and history buffs alike will find great value in Holdorph’s text, and it would make a fine addition to history or women’s studies curricula alike, or to the home library of a hobbyist historian. It is a wide-reaching and yet deeply-researched text full of figures who were more crucial to history than they may have previously been given credit for, brought to the reader’s attention by a writer with polished prose that avoids stuffiness.

Holdorph’s book does what it says it’s going to do, that is, to tell stories about different types of women in European medieval courts. It’s divided in different parts, talking about women in different positions such as queen, noblewoman and concubine.

It was fairly interesting but it also felt very long even though the page count wasn’t that high. I enjoyed it, but didn’t really take anything with me from reading it.

MISSED THE MARK DESPITE THE POTENTIAL

Actual rating: 2.5 ⭐

Anyone who knows me would say that this book is right up my alley. I did my master's thesis in history on medieval queenship. So this book spoke to me for very obvious reasons. Sadly, the execution was not to my liking.

👎 What I Disliked 👎

Structure: My biggest issue was with the structure of this book. Especially seeing as the structure isn't even consistent throughout the book. In the first part, which centers around noble women, we go from the specifics into the general. Several women are studied in biographical detail after which general conclusions are drawn about their overall stages in life. For the next part about queen consorts, however, that structure is somewhat turned on its head. Here were go from the general into the specific. Holdorph outlines different roles of a queen consort after which she illustrates those roles with examples. For me, the second structure construction worked the best. The first part was definitely the most confusing with names, times and events being thrown about seemingly at random and intertwined with each other. It was like getting into a story only to get yanked out of it and thrown headfirst into the next. And don't even get me started on the context. Holdorph has an issue with limitations - we are told absolutely everything about everyone. Which would have been fine if it wasn't a collective biography. Each and every story suffers from a lack of context in regards to time, political climate and social constructs.

Grammar: I don't usually get hung up on grammar and spelling mistakes (especially not in ARCs), but honestly, this was very distracting. Especially the number of missing words, where I had to guess at the meaning of a sentence.

Repetition: Another issue I had was the repetitions. I think this was a side effect of the way the book was structured. But whatever the cause, I got tired of reading the same things over and over.