Medieval Women

A traveling merchant’s death heralds a series of grim mishaps at Salisbury Castle. Ela suspects a plot to discredit her as sheriff. Can she solve the murder and save her reputation, or will she be the next victim?

It is May 1272, and Prioress Eleanor of Tyndal, recovering from a near-fatal winter fever, journeys to Amesbury Priory to visit her aunt in time for the Feast of Saint Melor. Although Eleanor hopes to regain her strength in the midst of pleasant childhood memories, death reveals a most troublesome fondness for her company. A ghost now haunts Amesbury. Is it perhaps the spirit of a pregnant woman who drowned herself in the River Avon? But soon the specter turns murderous.

In the winter of 1271, death stalks the corridors of Wynethorpe Castle on the Welsh border. When the Grim Reaper touches the beloved grandson of the castle lord, Baron Adam sends for his daughter, Prioress Eleanor of Tyndal, and her subinfirmarian, Sister Anne, to save the child with their prayers and healing talents. Escorting them to the remote fortress is Brother Thomas, an unwilling monk fighting his private demons.

In the early 1800s, on a Hebridean beach in Scotland, the sea exposed an ancient treasure cache: 93 chessmen carved from walrus ivory. Norse netsuke, each face individual, each full of quirks, the Lewis Chessmen are probably the most famous chess pieces in the world. Harry played Wizard's Chess with them in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. Housed at the British Museum, they are among its most visited and beloved objects.

The giant Highlander is a self-proclaimed bachelor who has sworn for years that there isn't a woman in all of Scotland worth shaving his beard for, and for good reason. Years ago, after a bonny young lass broke his heart and left his dignity in shreds, he swore never again to put it in such peril. As a testament to his sincerity, he vowed never again to shave his beard. Then he met her.

Hildegard von Bingen was never meant to be remembered by history. The 10th child of one of the Graf von Sponheim’s knights, she was given to Disibodenberg monastery partly out of gratitude to God, but also partly because her visions made her too odd to make a suitable wife. When she succeeded Jutta von Sponheim as magistra and prioress of Disibodenberg monastery, she found herself unable to keep her visions secret any longer. What happened next led her to revolutionize not only monastic life for women, but the whole world too.

Virginal, chaste, humble, patiently waiting for rescue by brave knights and handsome princes: this idealized—and largely mythical—notion of the medieval noblewoman still lingers. Yet the reality was very different, as Kelcey Wilson-Lee shows in this vibrant account of the five daughters of Edward I, often known as Longshanks. The lives of these sisters—Eleanora, Joanna, Margaret, Mary, and Elizabeth—ran the gamut of experiences open to royal women in the Middle Ages.

Set against the backdrop of the turbulent 13th century, a time of chivalry and crusades, poetry, knights, and monarchs, comes the story of the four beautiful daughters of the count of Provence, whose brilliant marriages made them the queens of France, England, Germany, and Sicily.

Acclaimed translator Dick Davis breathes new life into the timeless works of three masters of 14th-century Persian literature Together, Hafez, a giant of world literature; Jahan Malek Khatun, an eloquent princess; and Obayd-e Zakani, a dissolute satirist, represent one of the most remarkable...

The Peloponnesian War drags on and on with no end in sight, and the tough-minded Lysistrata has had enough. Men! - always making stupid decisions that affect everyone. Women's opinions are never listened to. Taking matters into her own hands, Lysistrata convenes a meeting of women from warring city-states across Greece and calls for a sex strike. It's a hard sell, but in the end, it is agreed: They will withhold sex until the war is brought to hasty a close.

In 2017, DNA tests revealed to the collective shock of many scholars that a Viking warrior in a high-status grave in Birka, Sweden was actually a woman. The Real Valkyrie weaves together archaeology, history, and literature to imagine her life and times, showing that Viking women had more power and agency than historians have imagined.

Celebrate the impact women have made in our culture: This feminist book is a beacon of brilliance. It is the perfect gift for artists, intellectuals, and anyone who seeks to be inspired by words and profound lives. Most of all, it is a celebration of the journeys and accomplishments of women who have worked to have their voices heard in black and white letters across the world.

This series features a real historical figure—the formidable Ela Longespée. The young Countess of Salisbury was chosen to marry King Henry II’s illegitimate son William. After her husband’s untimely death, Ela served as high sheriff of Wiltshire, castellan of Salisbury Castle, and ultimately founder and abbess of Lacock Abbey.

"Both narrators add depth and resonance to Young's rich prose...Those who enjoy epic fantasy novels should definitely give this a listen!" — AudioFile Magazine From Adrienne Young, New York Times bestselling author of Sky in the Deep, comes her new gut-wrenching epic The Girl the Sea Gave Back...

The lives of the sons of Eleanor of Aquitaine are the stuff of legend. Her daughters, however, are less well known, and the fascinating personalities of her daughters-in-law have been almost entirely overlooked, as have those of the daughters she bore Louis VII of France. The Families of Eleanor of Aquitaine redresses this balance and showcases the lives, travels, and careers of these ten very different women, who formed a great international network of political alliances that linked their parents, siblings, husbands, and children all across Europe and the Holy Land.

In 1351, many in England begin thinking that their mighty overlords - Church and Crown - have no control over their fates and a new horizon beckons. It’s a time when labor is in high demand, and nature offers immense bounty to those who have survived death and disease.

Salisbury 1226. When a child of village outcasts disappears from Salisbury, the odious new sheriff doesn’t seem to care. Ela Longespée is determined to help the girl’s desperate parents and her investigation leads her into the thick of a human-trafficking ring in London. There, she vows to find the lost child, arrest the perpetrators, and convince the king to make her high sheriff of Wiltshire.

In 1384, a poor and illiterate peasant woman named Ermine moved to the city of Reims with her elderly husband. Her era was troubled by war, plague, and schism within the Catholic Church, and Ermine could easily have slipped unobserved through the cracks of history. After the loss of her husband, however, things took a remarkable but frightening turn. For the last 10 months of her life, Ermine was tormented by nightly visions of angels and demons.

Un'altra rivoluzione è nata in Francia prima del 1789: quella di Maria di Francia. Se non è raccontata nei manuali è perché, a differenza della prima, è una rivoluzione fallita. Le idee di Maria non compirono il salto necessario per trasformarsi, come quelle degli Illuministi, in arieti capaci di abbattere le mura della Bastiglia. Perfino la memoria di Maria si perse, e la sua vera identità si confuse. Le sue idee sulle donne, sul rapporto tra i sessi e sull'amore, tuttavia, seppero far emergere una visione - per la prima volta - del tutto femminile del mondo.

The bestselling, critically acclaimed new women’s history book from Philippa Gregory for 2025 – adapted for teen and YA readers! SHORTLISTED FOR THE BRITISH AUDIO AWARDS 2025! Today, when we think of women of the past, we often think of the 1800s and 1900s – crinolines and stage coaches...