Lindy Grant

Blanche of Castile was first queen, then queen regent, of France in the early thirteenth century. Her acts as a politician and a patron have largely been overlooked by historians, but Lindy Grant provides a remarkable rebuttal to that in this book, the first full-length biography of Blanche since the 1890s. Grant reassesses the sources to do with Blanche's life in light of recent developments in medieval feminist historiography and studies of power and authority in the Middle Ages. This allows Grant to write a biography which is avowedly a political one, and makes a powerful and well-written case for the centrality of Blanche to our understanding of the changing nature of Capetian image and authority in the thirteenth century. Highly recommended for anyone with an interest in medieval or women's history.… (meer)

I'm in love with the cathedral in Coutances, and I think that some of the old priory and parish churches especially in Lower Normandy have a charm which the grander gothic elsewhere in France tends to lack. This book provides a thorough study not only of the buildings themselves, but of the social and cultural context in which they were created; it is very generously illustrated with extremely good photographs; and it is written, too, with something of the spirit of love which these wonderful buildings can evoke. It is a real gift and joy.… (meer)