Two Houses, Two Kingdoms
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A History of France and England, 1100–1300
Catherine Hanley
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Format: HardcoverPrice: $40.00
An exhilarating, accessible chronicle of the ruling families of France and England, showing how two dynasties formed one extraordinary story
The twelfth and thirteenth centuries were a time of personal monarchy, when the close friendship or petty feuding between kings and queens could determine the course of history. The Capetians of France and the Angevins of England waged war, made peace, and intermarried. The lands under the control of the English king once reached to within a few miles of Paris, and those ruled by the French house, at their apogee, crossed the Channel and encompassed London itself.
In this lively, engaging history, Catherine Hanley traces the great clashes, and occasional friendships, of the two dynasties. Along the way, she emphasizes the fascinating and influential women of the houses—including Eleanor of Aquitaine and Blanche of Castille—and shows how personalities and familial bonds shaped the fate of two countries. This is a tale of two intertwined dynasties that shaped the present and the future of England and France, told through the stories of the people involved.
Catherine Hanley is a writer and researcher specializing in the Middle Ages. She is the author of Matilda, Louis, and War and Combat 1150–1270, and is a contributor to the Oxford Encyclopaedia of Medieval Warfare and Military Technology.
“Catherine Hanley’s engaging account of England and France during the 12th and 13th centuries covers a turbulent period bookended by the accession of Henry I (after the suspicious death of his brother William Rufus) and the marriage of Edward II to Isabella of France (she would later be implicated in his murder). Much of what comes in between reads like the plot of a soap opera peopled by larger-than-life characters.”—Katherine Harvey, The Sunday Times
Publication Date: August 9, 2022
24 color illus.
