Margaret of Anjou: She-Wolf of France, Twice Queen of England

Margaret of Anjou was a French girl who married the son of Henry V but lost her throne and fled into exile. Shakespeare cast her as a sadistic killer, but history cast her as a manipulative seductress. This biography reveals a new side to her, showing that she was a strong woman who took control in the absence of male leadership and was a beloved wife and political faction leader.

Format: Hardback
Length: 288 pages
Publication date: 15 April 2023
Publisher: Amberley Publishing

In 1445, a fifteen-year-old French girl named Margaret left her homeland to marry the son of the great warrior Henry V. Sixteen years later, her husband had lost his throne, and she had fled into exile. For a decade, she struggled to reclaim the throne of England before her final and shattering defeat at the Battle of Tewkesbury. This marked the final destruction of the House of Lancaster by Yorkist King Edward IV and his brothers. Margaret lost more than her family; she was also vilified. Shakespeare cast her as a sadistic killer who murdered the noble Richard, Duke of York. History cast her as a manipulative seductress whose destructive ambition was a major cause of the Wars of the Roses.

Margaret of Anjou remains one of the most notorious consorts in medieval history, the queen we love to hate. But is her reputation deserved, or was she simply caught between the machinations and rivalries of powerful men? By examining Margaret's life and actions in detail, this biography reveals a new side to the last foreign-born queen of medieval England.

Margaret came from a family of strong women. Faced with hardship in the first years of her marriage, Margaret's choices arose from a conviction that it was natural for a woman to take control in the absence of male leadership. A wealth of records have been left behind, allowing historians to investigate Margaret's career as a beloved wife and, later, as the leader of a political faction struggling to secure the crown for her family. If the course of history had run differently, would she instead be considered a heroic warrior queen today – perhaps even England's Joan of Arc?

Weight: 632g
Dimension: 166 x 245 x 34 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781445683584