Book Review: “She-Wolves” by Helen Castor

The Women Who Ruled England Before Elizabeth

I’ve been on a history kick recently, and this is the latest book I’ve devoured on Medieval queens. She-Wolves is an excellent survey of the queen’s who wielded power in England prior to Elizabth I. Beginning with Empress Matilda, and guiding the reader through the lives and careers of Eleanor of Aquitaine, Isabella of France, Margaret of Anjou, and finally Mary I, Castor shows the challenges that these women wrestled with as they attempted to exercise their rights against those who attempted to depose and overthrow them. This was a fun follow on to my recent read on Joana I of Naples, and it was interesting to see some of similarities that these women faced, though they lived far apart.

Each women’s story is a fantastic and thrilling read, but my favorite has to have been the section on Isabella. Not only does she end up with probably the happiest ending of them all, she absolutely ran rings around just about everyone except her son. Her story is also ludicrously insane, beginning with her wedding, where her husband gave all their wedding guests to his closest friend, and had his and his friend’s sigils everywhere instead of his and Isabella’s. 

I had a couple of takeaways from this, beyond the obvious double standards that these queens were held to. Perhaps the biggest is the realization of the informational vacuum these people lived in, and the challenges that caused.  It took days, or even weeks for word to spread that a monarch had died, and when Margaret of Anjou came to England, there was no Wikipedia or travel guide to explain to her all the diverse customs and traditions of the new nation she found herself in.

Another thing came to me as I listened to Isabella just run rings around the people who were trying to marginalize her. There was a lot of ink spilled during the middle ages about why women were unfit to rule, the weaker sex, etc etc. And I think part of it is that people had to write a lot of long, complicated explanations for why that was true, otherwise people might believe their lying eyes when they saw women often being more competent than their male counterparts. This observation isn’t original to me, there’s a number of other writers and thinkers who have commented on the same phenomenon, pointing out that if it is so obvious that women can’t lead or rule, why do so many people feel the need to write so extensively on the subject.

I also think its important to be careful how we look at historical characters, especially ones from periods where there is so little historical information. Every one of these queens made mistakes, had failings, and experienced failures. They are not perfect. But in comparison to those they faced, I would argue they performed far above average and deserve credit for their achievements. I would argue that Matilda was a much better ruler and manager than Stephen, that Eleanor appears to have been far more competent in general than Louis VII, her son John, and in many ways even than Richard I. Isabella and Margaret of Anjou were both miles better in practically every way than their husbands, understanding far better the kingdoms they ruled, the realities of power, and the difficulties they faced.

I’ve said before that I really enjoy reading about medieval women because they often have to use a much more complex set of tools and skills to achieve success than their male counterparts, and this book was  great example of that.

This was a truly excellent book all around, and I’m looking forward to digging more into these fascinating characters. As someone who isn’t really well read on this period, this book was very accessible and I highly recommend it to everyone.

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