Four Queens: The Provencal Sisters Who Ruled Europe

I enjoyed this light historical biography of the four amazing sister princesses of medieval Provence. The narrator has a pleasant, easy-to-follow style. The historical facts are lightened with some humorous and interesting contemporary quotations and anecdotes. The author makes this world come alive for the listener. Delightful!

I loved listening to this book! The book itself is well written. One forgets that it is a history and is soon drawn into the world of the Four Queens! The narrator was wonderful as well. I am looking for more books read by her. Highly recommended on all fronts!

This was both a fascinating story about a period in history of which I knew very little. The narrator is wonderful as well, and the book engrossing.

I fell in love with the narrative the moment I began listening and the book endeared me right till the end. Although primarily about the four Provencen Sisters, The book was a great for those people interested in the life of the top echelon of the society, their aspirations and troubles. I thoroughly enjoyed myself with this book.

The narrator's switching between Accents was charming and enhanced the narrative in no small way, this is a great book, and I'd love to read or listen to more books like this.

Four Queens is a very "listenable" account of the lives of four sisters from Provence. I liked the narrator (who on a few occasions went into dramatic overdrive). I'm going to the south of France soon and I picked up some valuable history along with enjoying a well-told story.

I disagree with the more negative review, but I understand exactly what the reviewer means. This book is a light medieval history and like many histories the information is cobbled together a bit. It does seems disjointed because the story rotates among the sisters, and it's not in a perfect chronology, though it is _generally_ chronological. It's a good book but it's a more challenging listen than something like a historical romance. Two-thirds in, I was a little tired of it. BUT, if you don't know anything about these sisters and like medieval history, you will find the book fascinating.

After reading the book summary of four sisters becoming queens of different countries, I imagined four extraordinary women, overcoming adversity, and against all odds, bringing
peace throughout the land (I wasn't a history major).

I bought this book after reading the author's "The Lady Queen" which I liked a great deal. This is a pretty good book- but the storylines of the sisters are quite separate most of the time. And when they do intersect, it's not always a happy family experience, but more in the line of trying to stop a scheming brother-in-law. There's no murder, incest, or insanity. Although, it takes place in the 13th century, the author conveys the personalities and the actions in such a way that it is relatable to the kinds of problems we deal with today. You have an overbearing mother-in-law that her kind son won't stand up to, your three older sisters publically snub you because they're more successful (they're queens, you're not), your husband isn't as smart or successful as his younger brother (even though your husband's the king) so you keep having to bribe the brother for his help to get anything done, etc. are just some of the issues that the sisters face. It's all very human.

I became very interested in Eleanor, the queen of England. She initially seems to have hit the marital jackpot. She had an arranged marriage (at, I think, 12) to an older man, but he turns out to be a devoted, loving husband, interested in the same things as her. One small problem: he's not that good at his job (as king). So she assists him. With her intelligence and initiative, this sounds like a perfect remedy. But she ends up becomes one of the most hated women in England for bringing in her foreign family members to help out.. and get well compensated for their trouble.

Probably one of the most interesting unanswered question for me from the book is why no one seems to like Beatrice. In the book, the animosity towards her is chalked up to inheritance issues. But that still doesn't explain why all three of the sisters (and I think the mother as well) don't care for her. Her husband, while a good husband to her, doesn't keep his word and is only out to enrich himself. But while he definitely contributes to the dislike, I have a feeling that their must have been some incident, lost to history, that led to the problem.

While a nonroyal group of sisters becoming Four Queens is an extraordinary situation that does capture attention, the reality of it is mainly a book of four different queens.

I loved the stories but I kept getting confused with the story lines. I felt like I kept jumping around. I would have liked more story with out the details.

A scholarly but readable account of Eleanor, Marguerite, Sanchia, and Beatrice of Provence. These four incredible, strong, and influential women helped define Europe during the thirteenth century. My favorite medieval time period is the fourteenth century. Reading this work gave me much greater insight into the events that helped shape the fourteenth century and the curious relationship between England and France.

This book did not seem very well organized and the story was not told in chronoligical order. It was as if someone was stringing together bits of histrorical facts from different sources. One chapter tells of the death of one of the women and in the next chapter it is related that she spent the Christmas season with the family in France. I give the narrator credit for for doing a good job with the material she had to work with. I don't know how I managed to listen to the entire book.