Alison Weir as always shows her thorough research in this fine biography. Isabella, the daughter of the French King, married Edward II at the age of 12. Brought up to respect the awe and majesty of the throne, she was sorely disappointed in her father's choice of a husband. Edward was a week king and leader, apparently, easily led by others. Weir chronicles Isabella's change from girlhood to womanhood as she asserts herself as Queen. She is fair in her treatment of Isabella, acknowledging her weaknesses as well as her strengths, documenting her relationship with her husband Edward II, Roger Moritmer, and her son Edward III. The one fault I have are the leaps of logic she makes in her assertions she makes regarding Edward's murder and her relationship with Mortimer.

Alison Weir gives a detailed account of the life of Queen Isabella and illustrates that even though Isabella had a priveleged life it did not save her from her husband's jealous favourite who tried to crush her. Weir outlines the woman's point of view and the female role in Medieval society where 'rights' we given by the husband. When Queen Isabella witnesses everything she is entitled to as Queen removed she tactfully polts to regain her freedom and ultimate revenge. Alison Wier shows that Queen Isabella was the more powerful character and ruler compared to her husband and how this role was viewed in Medieval society.

medieval europe was a very rough place to be a woman of royal blood,you have less right than a slave.

This is the fifth Allison Weir book I've listened to on audio (after her books Eleanor of Aquitaine, The Six Wives of Henry VIII, The Children of Henry VIII and The Life of Elizabeth I) plus I've read another (The War of the Roses), and this one is definitely the weakest of the bunch for reasons I'll set forth below. But even weak Allison Weir is enjoyable and full of detail you won't get elsewhere, so as long as you go into it knowing her bias, it's still a worthwhile read, and the audio version of this one is particularly good and unabridged to boot.

As other reviewers have noted, the book is a bit revisionist in its view of Edward II's wife, Isabella, who was nicknamed (well after her death) the She-Wolf of France. While we can certainly be sympthetic to Isabella's plight in life, being married to a man who was a terrible and unpopular king and was most likely involved in a homosexual relationship right under her nose, Weir ends up identifying far too much with Isabella and making her sound like an all-around great gal, which she most certainly wasn't. It's also a bit misleading to call this a biography of Isabella. More like a history of Edward II with a little Isabella thrown in for good measure. That's not entirely Weir's fault, as there isn't that much extant on Isabella's life and, in any event, you can't understand Isabella without knowing what was happening in the lives of the men around her. Still -- the audio version takes up 18 discs, and a great deal of it is lists: where Isabella spent the night on various dates, what she wore, who was in attendence, all interspersed with the larger, historical happenings in the kingdom. It doesn't always mesh together, particularly since on audio you can't skim over the parts that are thrown in just so we don't forget that this is supposed to be a book on Isabella and not one about Edward II. Also, as other reviewers have noted, Weir spends an awful lot of time surmising that Edward II wasn't really murdered but escaped from England and spent the rest of his life following his deposition as a hermit in Italy. And that's not the only surmising Weir does. The book is best when it sticks to the facts and summarizes the various theories surrounding Edward and Isabella, rather than offering poorly supported conclusions. Weir's views about conspiracies having to do with Edward's alleged escape, about Isabella's supposed pregnancies during the time of her affair with Roger Mortimer, and similar matters, simply aren't convincing. But oh those details -- they're just wonderful and not ones you tend to find in other 14th century history books.

Of the five Weir books I've listened to on audio, all but one (the one on Elizabeth) have been superbly narrated. Lisette Lecat reads Isabella in a languid, upper-crust voice that took some getting used to at first, but which I grew quickly to appreciate as it never overshadows the material. My only criticism, and it's a slight one, is that she deepens her voice somewhat unaturally when reading passages of letters written by men, and I would have preferred that she just read them in her own voice. Other than that though, the narration is close to perfect, with the added plus that Lecat can correctly pronounce the numerous French place names. In the Life of Elizabeth I, the narrator not only sounded like the witch in a children's book, she mispronounced Catherine de Medici's last name every time, which took me right out of the narrative. Lecat, on the other hand, is impeccable with both her timing and pronunciation and so this was a pleasure to listen to from a purely audio perspective.

If you've never read much on this time period I wouldn't recommend this as a starting place (Thomas Costain's four book on the Plantagenets are a great place to begin), nor would I recommend it as the first Allison Weir book to read (start with the Six Wives of Henry VIII). But if you are a Weir fan or looking for an alternative and sympathetic point of view about Isabella, by all means jump right in, especially if you need something good and lengthy to listen to on a long drive or commute.

It's been almost ten years since I left university, and after years of a staple diet of chick-lit, one of my new year's resolutions has been to read more - um - informational books written on a grade level that is at least on par with junior high! When I first moved to the UK I spent a lot of time refreshing myself on the monarchy, especially during the middle ages and renaissance, and while I remember hearing of Isabella as the "she-wolf" who was also the line to so many other historical happenings (Richard II and the Princes in the Tower, etc), I didn't know anything about her. Neither, obviously, did many other people, and thus, this book was a great way to swim in medieval England for a while and really learn the personalities of people involved.

I grew to like Isabella very much, and was impressed with her as a woman of her time. But my thoughts of Isabella aside, i have to say that this book was definitely on par with all of Alison Weir's previous works. It wasn't always as riveting, and sometimes I felt overwhelmed with information, and there were times when I just couldn't handle more than 15 pages at once, but overall it was an informative read and parts of it were very fast-paced.

I do wish there had been more family trees and maps - I found myself going to wikipedia all the time, and was grateful that I have actually been to Leeds Castle, so I know it's not actually in Leeds, but on nearly the opposite end of England! I think Weir might forget sometimes that a huge percentage of her readers probably don't know how long it would take to go from Islip to Gloucester to Canterbury. So if you don't know a lot about the monarchy and relations, or the geography of the UK, it would probably be a good idea to have wikipedia very nearby!

Definitely a recommended read for history buffs and students alike. Very glad I read it.

It's not uncommon for a biographer to develop some sympathy for their subject. In this case, though, one gets the feeling that Weir developed her sympathy before writing the book, and, in fact, set out to do her research to redeem Isabella's reputation, rather than simply to write an account of her life. Which is not intrinsically a bad thing. My problem is that Weir spends too much time disproving one historical theory of Isabella after another when, no matter your bias, the evidence is just not there for a conclusive determination either way. And yet, Weir routinely calls any conclusion but the one she has drawn "speculative." As far as I can tell, her conclusions are just as speculative!

Having said that, Weir is to be commended for the thoroughness of her research. It must be incredibly difficult to come up with so much material about a woman of that time, even one as notorious as Queen Isabella. And Weir does an admirable job of taking the dry account books and other records and turning them into an actual narrative, to say nothing of making that narrative compelling at times.

Queen Isabella, the wife of Edward II, has always suffered a bad rep. I never really understood why since she did manage, against all odds, to kick her inept husband off the English throne and replace him with their competent son, Edward III: something not even the revered Queen Eleanor of Aquitaine managed to do. It seems that in this case moralists and gay activists have had a common cause! She was an adulteress and she was the enemy of a gay icon.
This book straightens out the facts. However nice Edward II might have been as a person, he, and his favorites, was a disaster as ruler. Isabella's adultery with Lord Mortimer is also made understandable.
Ms. Weir does allow herself to sometime interpret Isabella's actions, which is OK since it always clear when she does it.
She also puts Isabella's actions into historical context.
The reading is exceptional.

I have read other books by this author and enjoyed them even though they are very historically written. The book started slow and never picked up. I had expected better from a book about Isabella.

I agree with other reviewers that this historical novel of Queen Isabella is extremely readable and generally it was much more fun to read than many a history book. However, I was sometimes turned off, even to the point of wincing, at her very opinionated assertions. To be sure, I'm not a historian, but it seems to me that in most histories/biographies the writer tends to be a bit more objective. It is fine to argue that the evidence/history supports certain things (e.g., in this book, that Isabella is not the evil harridan many others have made her out to be), but Weir often spends a couple paragraphs on her soapbox which can distract from the overall flow of the book, especially because frequently her conclusions seem spurious and founded on very subjective and/or weak reasons/documents/data. Strangely, too, she is very liberal about strong women, yet very hung up and negative about Edward II's possible homosexuality; she also describes one Spanish princess as having a "Moorish cast" which was not apparently a quote but her own wording. Confusing, too, is the way one time she will definitively make a conclusion then later say the same thing "might" be true, then again say it conclusively, as for example the issue of the elder Edward's homosexuality. Did she really believe it or not? Not always clear from her wording. Lastly, some of the conclusions she made based on medical "knowledge" were ludicrous and she should have checked with a medical professional. Bottom line: very entertaining, but be prepared to accept alot of very subjective conclusions along with the historical facts.

Alison Weir has written an exciting and insightful biography about a much maligned Queen. Her reseach and documentation are impeccable. I found myself bound to this book, I could not put it down. Ms.Weir has once again made history live for me.

As always, Alison Weir has written an easy-to-read, interesting piece of popular history that engages its reader. The writing style is crisp and well-written. Her facts are for the most part great, certainly better than some writing in this period. But it's the interpretation of the facts that tend to bother me here. I was unimpressed with Weir's consistent vindication of Isabella-as-a-much-wronged-victim(which seems to be popular these days) and the use of this as "justification" later on.

For one, I was bothered by Weir's frequent referencing of Isabella's "mistreatment" and "abandonment". As if Medieval women expected anything less. Women in Isabella's position were quite frequently, if not usually, ignored in favor of mistresses, placed second to council, kept from their children, and subject to their husband's every whim. This does not make it right, of course, but it's not as if people would expect much less. And in fact, many a time Edward was very good to Isabella, letting her drastically overspend, he is said to have only reproached her once. I find it interesting that when she was in France cavorting with Mortimer that Edward had the legal right to kill her, he could have sent people to beat the snot out of her, and yet he did not. I believe this says a great deal about his character. But I digress.

Another thing I was annoyed with was Weir's attitudes towards homosexuality. I recall her using the word "perverted" more than once(and in a way that was reflecting more her beliefs than society at the time's). And some pretty sharp double edged swords were being thrown here. When Edward is influenced by one of his advisers-likely lovers-it's a perverted hold and means he is weak and a horrible King. But when Isabella in 1527-1530 lets Mortimer take the reigns(allegedly), it's just because of her feelings for him and we should only blame her a bit.

I'm definitely not convinced at this portrayal of Isabella. Weir-grudgingly-admits to a bit of ruthlessness in her character before amping up her much vaunted "good qualities"(all which require coaching out of their shells) and blaming whatever man is handy at the time. Her greed and power-hungriness is skimmed in a paragraph, while the Despensers and Edward get a whole chapter dedicated to their(admittedly excessive) expenditures, and it's never mentioned that Isabella's were much worse! Isabella was certainly a force to be reckoned with-head strong, intelligent, courageous-yet no matter how hard you press that it was justified, a woman who watches a man she knew being slit from top to bottom, howling along the way, slowly dying, and throw a party afterward is not a delicate little flower. A mother who would refuse her children one last time to see their beloved father can hardly be called kind-hearted. And yet Weir would have us believe she is just a gentle little bookworm, doe-souled mother who was just getting her rightful little revenge.

Not to say I loathed this book. I'm a fan of Weir's style, even if I disagree utterly with the conclusions she comes to. The three parts ("Isabella and Edward", "Isabella and Mortimer", "Isabella") were well divided, and the chapters within were interesting(I'm curious where many of the quotes came from at the beginning of each, Shakespeare, perhaps?). Like in all of her biographies, Weir has a chapter dedicated to the styling of the household at the time, equipped with Castle descriptions, employees of the subject, their day-to-day life-I tend to enjoy this chapter the most in her books(her "King and Court" book on Henry VIII is written in roughly half of this style, if anyone is interested). I did feel some sympathy for Isabella in many places, and I didn't feel Weir was ridiculous with the assertions she made to help clear Isabella's name(although her Edward II survival story sounded alarmingly fictitious, however, she never states it as concrete fact, so I was entertained.)

Overall, I would recommend this book not as a starting point, but for one who is reasonably schooled in this era of history.

Vivid and compelling depiction of an often maligned historical figure who emerges as much more complex and sympathetic than usual in histories of the period.

Excellent writing and a mesmerizing story: in-depth research and character-development creates an historical setting that involves the reader.

Excellent writing and a mesmerizing story: in-depth research and character-development creates an historical setting that involves the reader.

This is the best of the Alison Weir books I have read, and the others are 5 star books as well. The beginning part develops the characters, the later part is more reportorial. Weir concludes with a summary of Isabella's role as a revolutionary.

Isabella clearly defied the narrow female role of her times, but her revolutionary role, in my view, was accidental. It was not the confiscation of land of the nobles, nor the suspension of habeas corpus that motivated her, it was the suspension of her revenues and it seems to a lesser extent, her forced separation from the crown prince.

She was clever in "networking" with the many who had grievances against Edward II, and wise in her pardoning her adversaries and paying her supporters. Weir guides us towards blaming Mortimer for the re-institution of conficatory policies. I'm not convinced. As a woman in this time, Isabella surely needed male support and advice. Perhaps he steered in the directions she wanted to go.

Medieval England is barbarous, in many ways. The descriptions of the hangings anesthetize the reader to the ultimate burial of Isabella.

There are incisive descriptions of the relationships with Scotland, France and other continental courts, and the church. These narratives contribute to making the book more than just a good read for the lay reader.

In 1308, Isabella, the twelve-year-old daughter of French King Philip IV, arrived in London to marry Prince Edward, the heir to the throne of England. The marriage was designed to secure peace between England and France, which it did--for a time.

History has not been kind to Isabella. She is notorious for betraying her husband with another man, her country through the deposition and murder of a sitting English king, and her people through her ambition and greed. In this new biography of Queen Isabella, however, Alison Weir re-examines the evidence, and tries to place the accusations against Isabella into the context of the time and place in which she lived, giving her credit where credit is due, and placing blame perhaps more fairly than ever before.

Isabella's story is one of intrigue, treachery, betrayals, and mystery. There is no doubt that she committed adultery, but her husband was suspected of having homosexual affairs, and certainly largely ignored her. Isabella did lead an invasion of England that removed her husband and placed her son on the throne, but Edward was a tyrannical king. On the question of whether Isabella murdered Edward, Weir actually posits that Edward was not murdered at all, but escaped to live out his live in secret in Italy. Perhaps the shakiest conclusion she draws in the book, but she does make a point.

History is murky, and Weir shows us many possible ways that events could have played out, so we can come as close as possible to meeting Isabella ourselves, and passing our own judgment upon her.

In her introduction, Alison Weir says "Nowadays, after decades of change in the perception of the role of women, it is possible to view Isabella in a new light: to pity her, even to respect her." Weir has done her research, thoroughly and with an eye toward a new understanding of a woman who has been tidily condemned in myth and legend.

Armchair Interviews says: Weir shows that real life and history are rarely as black and white nor as easily understood as fairy tales.