About the Author

Catherine Hanley is a writer and researcher specializing in the Middle Ages. She is the author of Louis and War and Combat, 1150–1270 and a contributor to the Oxford Encyclopedia of Medieval Warfare and Military Technology.

Reviews

“Impressive study.”—Kathryn Hughes, The Guardian

“A fine example of the genre.”—Tony Barber, Financial Times

“A lively and authoritative account.”—Katherine Harvey, Times Literary Supplement

“This volume is designed for a wide readership and deserves to find one.”—Sean McGlynn, The Spectator

“A lively and illuminating biography.”—Peter Marshall, Literary Review

“[A]n excellent and provocative study that straddles the line between the scholarly and the popular.”—Lois Huneycutt, Royal Studies Journal

“An accessible and engaging history.”—Rod McLary, Queensland Reviewers Collective

“The biography of Matilda I’ve been waiting for: as clear-sighted, forthright and formidable as the Empress herself. Catherine Hanley combines lucid scholarship with page-turning narrative; military expertise with a fine-grained understanding of the challenges facing a twelfth-century woman who sought to rule. The result—authoritative, human, and utterly compelling—is a triumph.”—Helen Castor, author of She-Wolves

“Ambitious and compelling. Matilda brings the female ruler alive for a new generation of readers, capturing her early experiences as the young bride of the Holy Roman Emperor, her difficult marriage to Geoffrey of Anjou, her bitter rivalry with her cousin King Stephen for the English throne, and her vitally important role in supporting the accession of her son King Henry II.”—Louise J. Wilkinson, author of Eleanor de Montfort

“A lucid and long-needed study of Matilda, the mother of the Plantagenets, England’s longest ruling dynasty, and a pivotal figure in the power struggle that followed the death of her father, Henry I. It is essential reading for anyone seeking to understand this remarkable woman and the tangled politics of those years when ‘Christ and his saints slept.’”—Derek Wilson, author of The Queen and the Heretic