I very much enjoyed this book. It tells, as the title says, the story behind the Women of Magna Carta. Unfortunately this ‘women’s” history suffers for being told through the eyes of the men who fathered, loved and married these women, but that is just the nature of history in the ,Medieval period I’m afraid.
The author does an admirable job with the evidence available and this is written in a lively, engaging style. A Great book for anyone interested in the period of Magna Carta.

haron Bennett Connolly’s third and latest book is somewhat similar to her others in one sense. It focuses on women in history, and recounts the eventful lives of several Medieval women, some prominent, others unknown and largely forgotten.

This book focuses on the Magna Carta, the legendary document considered be the foundation of democracy and the constitution in England (and across the world). Only three clauses specifically mention women, and of these, none are mentioned by name. Yet there were many women who were effected by or many have lived in the shadow of the Magna Carta.

There was Matilda de Braose, a noblewoman who accused King John of murdering his nephew, and whose terrible fate and that of her family may well have given rise to the famous Clauses 39 and 40 of the Great Charter that speaks of delaying rights, justice and that none should be arrested or imprisoned ‘except by lawful judgement of their peers and the law of the land.

Some women defied expectations of their time, and of what modern people believe about Medieval people. Nicola de la Haye, defender of Lincoln castle and sometime Sheriff of Lincoln is fast becoming a historical heroine of mine. Yet Nicola was also, interesting a lifelong loyalist of King John. Others were not so fortunate, like Isabella of Gloucester, the first wife of King John who had little freedom or control of her destiny.

The book brings all these women, as well as their husbands and children to life, recounting their stories in short but concise chapters, and explaining their legacy, significance to the period and how some women like Eleanor de Montfort and Isabel D’Aubigny used the charter to fight for their rights and for political reform. Politically aware and legally savvy women were not the exceptions in Medieval England that we tend to think, and which is something which my own research has borne out.

A transcription of the Magna Carta and the 1217 Charter of the Forest makes this fascinating book into a valuable reference book as well.

My thanks to Rosie Crofts of Pen and Sword books sending me a copy of the book. I was not required to leave a review, and this did not influence my opinions which are entirely my own.

Ladies of Magna Carta by Sharon Bennett Connolly explores both the effects women had on the events leading to the Magna Carta as well as how it affected medieval English women after it was signed. It was well-researched and written and I enjoyed looking at a pivotal event in English history through the eyes of the women around it.

This was a fascinating insight into the ladies and events that shaped the Magna Carta. It was well researched and detailed. It also taught me about some fascinating women of that era. It was a very easy and interesting read! Some parts were very dense and sometimes repetitive, but they described events that were crucial to the creation of Magna Carta.

Good for those who have an interest of this time and women of this period. And introduction to a number of women. Do get information about the men and other things as well. But there is a sense of a biography of John sort of and about the document.

Magna Carta was a bitter pill for King John to swallow, but one that he refused and threw out again and again. It was the events that led up to the charter that led many to distrust and fear what the king might do.
Matilda de Braose was a wealthy woman, a member of one of the leading families in the land. As she fell onto the wrong side of the king, she was imprisoned along with other members of her family. King John starved her and her son to death, trying to force the capitulation of her husband.
When the bodies were found, there were marks on the son's face, from where his mother had tried to stay alive - by eating the flesh of her own son.

This was only one of the many horrors that happened under the reign of King John, but much of the women who influenced the Magna Carta are only known through their husbands and minor mentions. There are, however, many women who were influential in their own rights - and these stories are played out on the pages of this book. Learn about a female sheriff, military maneuvers, and more!

Well done and fabulously written, if you enjoy history - then this is a must to add to your list! This book does not disappoint.

This was an informative History book that was easy to read and interesting enough to hold the readers attention. I liked Sharon Bennett Connolly's writing. I did think the title was a bit misleading. A lot of these women's stories is told through the actions of their husbands and fathers. I understand that this is because very little information about these women is available and it is not a fault of the author.

Sharon Bennett Connolly is a historian who I admire, and I was not disappointed by this book in the least. Magna Carta is a massive topic to take on, especially when battling the myths and misinterpretations of it that have held on over the centuries. First of all, it was not this beautiful document that liberated anyone and set the foundation for democracy. The barons wanted more power. That's it. And Magna Carta was practically torn up by John before his signature was even dry, so there's that too.

Yet, there are still so many aspects of the document, the people, and the period to explore, and Connolly has done so masterfully in this new text relating directly to how it impacted several women who live through the tumult that was the medieval period.

A fair warning first - Magna Carta is complex. The period as it relates to Magna Carta is complex. This is not just a light reading that one might pick up and speed through in a few hours. I don't say this to discourage anyone, because it is well worth reading. I just want people to know what to expect.

If you have an interested in Medieval England and the Plantagenets, then you likely know the story of Matilda de Braose. She and one of her young sons were held captive by John and starved to death. Upon discovery of the bodies, there was evidence that Matilda had eaten parts of her son's face in a desperate attempt to survive. Because of this horrific event, Magna Carta contained the following clause (number 39):

"No man shall be taken, imprisoned, outlawed, banished or in any way destroyed, no will we proceed against or prosecute him, except by the lawful judgment of his peers or by the law of the land"

To say that John pissed some people off might well be the understatement of the millenniums.

Yet, as Connolly skillfully shows us throughout the entire text, Matilda de Braose is not the only woman to have impacted this document, or been impacted by it. Women from all over the entirety of the kingdom, from only the wealthy families of course, were to be touched by Magna Carta in one way or another. Women used the charter to protect themselves just as any man would have done in the same period, and many were successful in doing so.

Aside from an in-depth look at the de Braose family, Connolly has meticulously scoured historical records and come away with a wealth of information not only relating to the royal families of England and Scotland, but also the Marshals (my favorites!), the Warennes (she's also working on a new book about this family), the de la Hayes (definitely bad-asses), and so many others.

Women in history is a complex topic. The major problem is that up until recently, women were not considered worth writing about and so much information has been lost. There will be so much we can never know - even about some of history's most famous women, like my girl Eleanor of Aquitaine for example. She was held prisoner by Henry for FIFTEEN years and we have hardly any scraps of information about that time. We know where she was at times based on the Pipe Rolls, but not nearly as much as I wish for.

The book opens with an introduction into who John was and how Magna Carta came to even exist. We are given much background on him, which will be useful for those who are not familiar with my favorite dysfunctional family. Connolly also writes of Eleanor of Aquitaine, as well as the situations involving John and both of his wives. Even in a book titled 'Ladies of Magna Carta', it is crucial to explain John, because he is entirely why the barons felt this document even needed to exist. One must also remember as I mentioned earlier, women were not written about in their own right at that time. Anything recorded about them was usually in some way connected to how they related to the men in their lives, whether that be their fathers, brothers, husbands, and/or sons. This is an unfortunate side effect of women's rights and feminism not existing 800 years ago, but unfortunately there is nothing we can do really do about that now, is there? To understand how and why these women were able to accomplish what they did in that period, we have to know about the men in their lives. In my opinion, this does not take away from the incredible feats they were able to achieve. It makes them all the more remarkable. Readers must have context to understand what made these women so successful, and that context involves the men as well.

Overall I found this book to be a well-organized and deeply researched endeavor. Connolly has clearly spent much time and effort into providing readers as clear a picture as possible of some truly remarkable women. She brings the women to life and restores them to their rightful place in history.

Highly recommended.

Absolutely loved this book. It brought out the roles of women in the formation and assertion of the Magna Carta, something we don't hear very much about in general. There were some formidable women mentioned and I learned so much about their struggles and stories - some of them very tragic - and whether or not John was able to implement the Magna Carta to help them. In some cases, it was argued, women helped form the structure of some of the Magna Carta. A great read!

“Ladies of Magna Carta” was an interesting look into the lives of several of the leading women of the thirteenth century and how their experiences shaped aspects of one of England’s most famous and influential documents. Although we think of medieval women as having little to no role in politics or public life, Sharon Bennett Connolly proves us wrong by introducing us to women like Nicholaa de la Hay who was not only a sheriff in her own right, but held off invaders from her castle three different times. After a few chapters setting the scene by giving the reader a detailed biography of King John and the actions he took that caused his barons to rise against him-ending in the creation of the Magna Carta- each chapter is devoted to one woman of the time period. Often it becomes confusing trying to keep everyone straight because so many names are similar, and because the same people cross paths, fight, and marry each other, but if you accept that you won’t be able to keep all of the background people straight you’ll save yourself some confusion. The only real frustration I had with this book was the tendency towards repetition. Sometimes it seemed as if the same paragraphs were being used in multiple places to explain the same thing, which wasn’t necessary even when trying to remind the reader who we related to who. Overall a well researched book with interesting views into the lives of several fascinating women.

Initial review: This book is very detailed and well researched - those with an interest in this period will find it to their liking and a useful resource for their own investigations.



However .......

Bennett Connolly wanted to show how women influenced and were influenced by Magna Carta; how they were a central part of the struggle to bring about such a document, and to ensure that its clauses were being kept. She also wanted to "examine how .. Magna Carta influenced and impacted the women of the 13th century" and chose to present the ladies documented within the context of their families.

So let us take the second part - the presentation of the ladies. Yes, the ladies were definitely shown in the "context of their families" - and great detail and attention is given to setting out the family structure and connections. As to the first part, their influence on Magna Carta, this falls into the realm of conjecture and examples given are very narrow and not really enough to provide a satisfactory claim.

For me personally, I would have set this out a little differently with the pertinent clauses and examples following not just biographies of a select few women and then trying to tie them into the relevant clauses.. As such, I am still toying with a more fuller review as it don't think this hit the brief on certain points and as such would like to investigate on my own and expand on this in a little more detail.

Fascinating book! It was interesting to read about women living at the time of the insuing of the Magna Carta and to learn about what chapters were addressed to them and in what respects.
True, not much is known about the biographies of those medieval women. What is well known about them is their value on the marriage market meant to further their husbands' and their own families' own worth and not their own. They were pawns to dispose of as pleased their families. That was their own and true influence on the men who governed them!!! Only as widows they could theoretically decide on whether they wanted to marry or not according to the Magna Carta.
Much on the book is about the families of women, that is to say the male part. I found nevertheless interesting to read about differences in those various families in their relationship with their daughters and wives. A few of these medieval women did have a louder voice than was usually expected: 2 became Sheriffs, for instance.
What disturbed me was the repetition of several passages when relating to some event already depicted. I had the feeling that these passages were identical word for word to what I already read in a previous chapter.
Thank you NetGalley for letting me read this book!

A really interesting read. Well written and researched, full of facts I did not know. I recommend for all medieval history readers.

First of all, go into this book knowing that it is some Dense Reading.

The first two chapters are devoted to introducing King John II and establishing the timeline leading up to the Magna Carta, but extra attention and detail is given to his female relations, from his sisters and his mother, the admirable Eleanor of Aquitaine, to his wives, both named Isabella. This will turn out to be the modus operendi for the entire book, writ large. Each chapter opens with an accounting of a man’s life, and then goes about filling the gaps and embellishing the details with the women who affected, or were affected by, the men.

It is a little disappointing that most chapters are more biographies of men than of women. Women are presented in the context of their families, though some receive longer, more detailed treatments as individuals, such as Nicholaa de la Haye, the first female sheriff in England who served as castellan and commanded her castle for the duration of three sieges, one taking place after her sixtieth year and turning the tide in the long-standing war between England and France. Mostly, though, women are mothers, wives, and daughters to men, although within that framework they still accomplish some remarkable feats.

That said, it is of necessity that the information be structured so. For one thing, few contemporary writers saw fit to chronicle women’s lives unless they were writing hagiographies, particularly in accounts that can be used for reliable primary source material, so there’s a scarcity of information to be acknowledged. Furthermore, not only is there a paucity of primary source material discussing women, there is an entire complex era into which Connolly must contexualize her subjects, and in so doing she must - unavoidably - discuss male subjects.

To that end, the regular reminders of which Richard, William, and Isabella, etc. we’re reading about are less annoying than useful. That said, tracking names and actions is sometimes made difficult when individuals’ titles, notable deeds, and relations interrupt sentences. However there is a good deal of rehashing events, so over time it is possible to sort out what happened when, and involving whom. Toward the end there is an abrupt divergence from the eponymous figure of the chapter into a parallel life led by a Welsh princess which might catch readers by surprise, but Connolly ties them together again at last.

There were some spelling errors (“sew” instead of “sow” appears more than once), but otherwise this is a thoroughly-researched, carefully crafted work whose author has taken great pains to comb through historical documents to bring to light the lives of these 12th- and 13th century ladies who have long gone overlooked in historical texts. The book also includes in the appendices the text of the 1215 Magna Carta, a list of the twenty five enforcers of the Magna Carta, The 1217 Charter of the Forest, as well as extensive chapter-by-chapter notes.

One of the key takeaways from this book, in my opinion, was that in order to become a (somewhat) independent and empowered woman in 12th- and 13th century England, one must marry very young, outlive one’s powerful husband, and then lay claim to every possible property that might be granted by birth, marriage, or other means, and defend them tirelessly for the rest of one’s days, either by feats of arms or in the courts, while maintaining good relationships with one’s siblings. And even then, it might not work out. It sounds exhausting, to be honest, but still significantly better than being a peasant.

Liked reading about different ladies of the Magna Carta. However, it was a challenge to read because of the tiny text.

I had to expand the text every time I wanted to turn the page.

Highly recommend this novel for students of English history. I read History at University.

This was interesting indeed. I know about the Kings of the times of the Magna Carta but the ladies and Queens are a bit of a mystery to me. very informative though.