NetGalley ARC | Ladies of Magna Carta: Women of Influence in Thirteenth Century England

I received a free digital ARC from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Rating ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Sharon Bennett Connolly is a historian who I admire, and I was not disappointed by this book in the least. Magna Carta is a massive topic to take on, especially when battling the myths and misinterpretations of it that have held on over the centuries. First of all, it was not this beautiful document that liberated anyone and set the foundation for democracy. The barons wanted more power. That's it. And Magna Carta was practically torn up by John before his signature was even dry, so there's that too.

Yet, there are still so many aspects of the document, the people, and the period to explore, and Connolly has done so masterfully in this new text relating directly to how it impacted several women who lived through the tumult that was the medieval period.

A fair warning first - Magna Carta is complex. The period as it relates to Magna Carta is complex. This is not just a light reading that one might pick up and speed through in a few hours. I don't say this to discourage anyone, because it is well worth reading. I just want people to know what to expect.

If you have an interest in Medieval England and the Plantagenets, then you likely know the story of Matilda de Braose. She and one of her young sons were held captive by John and starved to death. Upon discovery of the bodies, there was evidence that Matilda had eaten parts of her son's face in a desperate attempt to survive. Because of this horrific event, Magna Carta contained the following clause (number 39):

No man shall be taken, imprisoned, outlawed, banished or in any way destroyed, no will we proceed against or prosecute him, except by the lawful judgment of his peers or by the law of the land

To say that John pissed some people off might well be the understatement of the millenniums.

Yet, as Connolly skillfully shows us throughout the entire text, Matilda de Braose is not the only woman to have impacted this document, or been impacted by it. Women from all over the entirety of the kingdom, from only the wealthy families of course, were to be touched by Magna Carta in one way or another. Women used the charter to protect themselves just as any man would have done in the same period, and many were successful in doing so.

Aside from an in-depth look at the de Braose family, Connolly has meticulously scoured historical records and come away with a wealth of information not only relating to the royal families of England and Scotland, but also the Marshals (my favorites!), the Warennes (she's also working on a new book about this family), the de la Hayes (definitely bad-asses), and so many others.

Women in history is a complex topic. The major problem is that up until recently, women were not considered worth writing about and so much information has been lost. There will be so much we can never know - even about some of history's most famous women, like my girl Eleanor of Aquitaine for example. She was held prisoner by Henry for FIFTEEN YEARS and we have hardly any scraps of information about that time. We know where she was at times based on the Pipe Rolls, but not nearly as much as I wish for.

The book opens with an introduction into who John was and how Magna Carta came to even exist. We are given much background on him, which will be useful for those who are not familiar with my favorite dysfunctional family. Connolly also writes of Eleanor of Aquitaine, as well as the situations involving John and both of his wives. Even in a book titled 'Ladies of Magna Carta', it is crucial to explain John, because he is entirely why the barons felt this document even needed to exist. One must also remember as I mentioned earlier, women were not written about in their own right at that time. Anything recorded about them was usually in some way connected to how they related to the men in their lives, whether that be their fathers, brothers, husbands, and/or sons. This is an unfortunate side effect of women's rights and feminism not existing 800 years ago, but unfortunately there is nothing we can do really do about that now, is there? To understand how and why these women were able to accomplish what they did in that period, we have to know about the men in their lives. In my opinion, this does not take away from the incredible feats they were able to achieve. It makes them all the more remarkable. Readers must have context to understand what made these women so successful, and that context involves the men as well.

Overall I found this book to be a well-organized and deeply-researched endeavor. Connolly has clearly spent much time and effort into providing readers as clear a picture as possible of some truly remarkable women. She brings the women to life and restores them to their rightful place in history.

Highly recommended.

Book Review | Magna Carta: The Making and Legacy of the Great Charter

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

So I don't really have anything new to say about this book that I did not already say in the review of this edition (with the US cover), but I wanted to post a little something anyway, because this edition has such stunning artwork. It kind of bums me out that UK covers are ALMOST ALWAYS better than the US covers. I think the only one I would say the opposite for is Jones' most recent book about the Crusades.

I'm pretty obsessed with medieval manuscripts, and in awe of the all the time and energy that went into creating just one book. I was fortunate enough to see the Book of Kells when Mom and I were in Dublin about ten years ago, and seeing something so beautiful in person is breathtaking. In a trip before the Dublin one when we were gallivanting around Scotland and England, one of our day-trips was supposed to involve a stop at Salisbury Cathedral to view a copy of Magna Carta, but we were diverted to Windsor Castle instead due to a sudden closure. I was terribly disappointed both in not seeing Magna Carta, but also because nearly everything at Windsor was closed because the Queen was KNIGHTING PEOPLE THAT DAY. First no Magna Carta. Then no St. George's Chapel, where I was planning on giving Henry VIII an earful.

This is definitely a great addition to medieval collection you might have, or a Dan Jones collection like I might have. Recommended.

Magna Carta: The Birth of Liberty

Rating: 5 Stars

I heart Dan Jones. He is my favorite historian and if he wrote a book about watching paint dry, I would read it because he is the kind of writer who could make it so engaging you would not realize how boring the topic actually is.

Luckily, he writes about people and things that are already very decidedly NOT boring - namely my two favorite families - the Plantagenets and the Tudors - and the eras in which they lived.

Magna Carta is perhaps the most misused document in the history of the world. It had nothing to do with democracy, as Jones makes very clear, and everything to do with the rights of the barons who were opposing King John at an incredibly tumultuous time in the kingdom. Yet in the 800 years since its initial issue, it has threaded its way through a myriad of other documents, most notably the Declaration of Independence in 1776. As Jones recounts, even in 2014 then-Prime Minister David Cameron pledged that all the children in the UK would study the document because "...its principals shine as brightly as ever, and they paved the way for the democracy, the equality, the respect an the laws that make Britain" (pgs 198-199). Yet studying the actual text of the document itself (which you can do without going to DC or England, thanks to the fact that the original 1215 charter is included in its entirety in Appendix A) shows that was not its purpose at all. In fact, many of the clauses did just the opposite and its purpose was to limit the power of the king, as well as certain groups of people such as women and Jews (page 198). Yet this great myth has been perpetuated for years and years that Magna Carta is the basis of democracy, something the authors of it would definitely disagree with, and the idea would have been completely foreign to them.

Th author does a fantastic job taking us back in time to 1215 to see why the document was even written in the first place. Due to John's complete lack of ability to be a good king, the aristocracy took it upon themselves to put John in his place, so to speak. Naturally, John had no intention of adhering to the agreement signed that day at Runnymede. Perhaps this quote from the book best sums up John, better than anything I have read before:

"People loathed John. For all the attempts that have been made by historians to rehabilitate his reputation, any study of England's third Plantagenet ruler must account for the fact that he was a cruel and unpleasant man, a second-rate soldier, and a slippery, faithless, interfering, uninspiring king. It is true that at times John was no less ruthless than his brother Richard, nor any less manipulative than his father, Henry. Kings in this age were not supposed or expected to be nice...But if John's relatives shared some of his worst traits, he shared almost none of their best" (page 28).

I loved this book for many reasons. In addition to its in-depth look at the events leading up to, and after Magna Carta was first signed, I greatly appreciated the nod to Eleanor of Aquitaine. Some historians are quick to downplay her importance or dismiss her altogether, but Jones does not do that. Instead he says, among other things, "On March 31, 1204, John's spirited but ancient mother, Eleanor of Aquitaine, died at eighty-two. Her formidable presence had kept some order in the empire's south, but her death prompted the King of Castile to invade Gascony" (page 33).

Another historical figure who is finally getting his due in general is that of William Marshal, who I also find highly fascinating. I am always curious how the early Plantagenet rulers can even be discussed without mention of the greatest knight in England's history, but Jones makes sure to note his presence and importance whenever necessary. He served five kings and did his best to ensure order was kept (or restored when John did something stupid) - Henry the Young King (crowned while Henry II lived, but never given any real power, thus leading to his rebellion. He died before his father though, and would never see his way to the throne), Henry II, Richard I, John, and Henry III.

Despite the short length of the book, 200 pages exactly of text discounting the appendixes, it is packed full of information. The pages are peppered with footnotes, with additional notes after Appendix C and before the substantial bibliography. There are two maps: one showing England in John's time and the other detailing the whole of the Plantagenet empire in what is now France, both at its height in 1189 and then after John lost several territories by 1215. Appendix A is Magna Carta 1215, Appendix B lists "The Enforcers of the Magna Carta" and gives a brief one-paragraph summary of each of the 25 baron who were supposed to enforce the charter as it was written, and Appendix C is a timeline of important events in the 900 years since Henry I became King of England and first granted a charter which listed similar clauses as Magna Carta. It also details some of the critical events leading up to 1215, as well as various events in the aftermath, including reissues of the charter by Henry III and Edward I. Also included are references to the charter in the following centuries up to 2015, the 800th anniversary.

While highly informative, this is still an easily accessible read. Dan Jones is a fantastic writer who conveys the importance of what he is writing without dumbing anything down. Highly recommended.