Book Review Time

She Wolves: The Women Who Ruled England Before Elizabeth by Helen Castor.

If you think you are reading an ordinary history book that is filled with just boring who gets the throne, this is not what you will find in this book. 

 This book was written by a fine History Teacher, and expert on Medieval England. She really has a knack for making history exciting and so informative. It was closer to reading it like a novel. 

As a matter of fact, for anyone that are fans of any of the T.V. Series that have to do with Knights, Wars, Kings, this is your book. This is better than any T.V. series because some of it is so unbelievable, you just can not make it up.

 The book starts off the the death of Queen Elizabeth's brother, King Edward VI, just weeks before while he is laying in bed, struggling with not only his life (and a painful death he had suffered). He had drafted a letter of Succession after his Death, trying to assure that Elizabeth whom he claimed to be a bastard child (thus stifling her heir to the Throne). Then, It talks of all the powerful women that lead up to his sister. 

 This was fascinating, informative, full of facts, and readable. It was quite enjoyable to read, and took me three days to complete. Well, four days, but one day I only read an hour.

  I loved this book. 

I loved how strong the women were and how I learned so much about the culture of the time, the Royal Dynamics, how women struggled to have validity. Before I read this, I only heard of Matilda, and I these other women with disdain and selfishness and even at times I would hear mean things about them. I would think... What failures. But, really I found that women with power in those days were written about badly by men because men would write things about women or say things about women to tarnish their credibility and try to get people to not follow the women.  Then I found that Henry the VI was not really King material. All this time I heard that his wife was bad, she was controlling and he was a freak of nature, that she poisoned Henry, but this is not so. She was all the time protecting her husband from invaders and protecting the Crown, the Subjects and the Throne. Of course she wanted her son to gain this but he was indeed the rightful heir. Her husband was a Passive man and she would see that he would not protect the land, and she had to do what she did in order to save her son's, and subjects life. 

  I learned about the time's people that I never really had before and into such great detail that I will say my History Teachers in High School or College never taught me. 

I would give this book a 10.