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Matilda  By  cover art

Matilda

By: Catherine Hanley
Narrated by: Jennifer M. Dixon
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Publisher's summary

A life of Matilda - empress, skilled military leader, and one of the greatest figures of the English Middle Ages.

Matilda was a daughter, wife, and mother. But she was also empress, heir to the English crown - the first woman ever to hold the position - and an able military general.

This new biography explores Matilda's achievements as military and political leader and sets her life and career in full context. Catherine Hanley provides fresh insight into Matilda's campaign to claim the title of queen, her approach to allied kingdoms and rival rulers, and her role in the succession crisis. Hanley highlights how Matilda fought for the throne and argues that although she never sat on it herself, her reward was to see her son become king. Extraordinarily, her line has continued through every single monarch of England or Britain from that time to the present day.

©2019 Catherine Hanley (P)2019 Tantor

What listeners say about Matilda

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Both entertaining and scholarly

Hanley spins a colorful and entertaining narrative on a skeleton of historic facts, bringing to life this 12th century queen whom history has long ignored. It was the audio equivalent of a page turner. The narration was also very good.

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11 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars

a wonderful way to learn about a great woman

Matilda wasn't mentioned in high school history class. I'm interested in the history of Great Britain. This is my first biography normally one to lesson to novels. I learned a lot about a great woman who I now feel more women and girls of today should know about. this book has now made want to find more biographies on female Noble women of that time. I highly recommend this book.


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6 people found this helpful

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essential study for English royal succession

I am an amateur historian if not more a fan of history. I am also a huge fan of this work.

the author does an excellent job of filling the reader in on what is going on else where and providing context. of special interest the author invests their time in cutting through the bias laid on the topic by the many intervening years to provide as honest and accurate an image of the subject as this reader believes possible.

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3 people found this helpful

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Wonderful Book

Matilda’s story is fascinating and is told very well in this book. Jennifer Dixon also does an outstanding narration. Would highly recommend to to anyone interested in a thorough recount of Matilda’s life.

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3 people found this helpful

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    3 out of 5 stars

Good story telling, flawed thesis

The author presents a nice narrative of the anarchy, the civil war between King Stephen and the Empress Matilda. However the author's entire thesis, that Empress Matilda was a shining light of medieval leadership and only her gender kept her from becoming Queen, or "female king" as she refers to the title is a problem.

Based on the author's argument you would think no crown was ever "stolen", no kingdom contested, no barons rebelled, and London never gave any ruler of England a hard time. In fact there are countless contemporary examples. The author is aghast that Matilda had the better claim and yet some Barons supported Stephen when her own father, King Henry I, "stole" the crown from his older brother, Robert - who, of course, had a stronger claim.

The claim that the Londoners rejected her based solely off gender is silly as it is mentioned several times that London was loyal to Stephen, if for no other reason that Stephen and his brother controlled access to the main shipping harbor in France. The author massively underestimates self preservation as a motivation. The same reason that opposition barons wee hesitant to switch sides when Matilda was in a strong position.

The author goes on to complain about unfair treatment in hostile chronicles, while uncritically embracing the favorable chronicles. She is distraught at the fact that Matilda is promised to marry Geoffrey of Aquitaine because he is merely a count's son and is ten years younger; yet, no complaints when Matilda is set to wed the future Emperor Henry who was much older than she was.

In the end the author concludes that Matilda did not rule England simply because she was a woman. No doubt there were more strict gender roles and it certainly might have played a role, perhaps even a significant role, in the outcome but the absurd and simplistic conclusion that every problem Matilda encountered came down to gender is truly head scratching.

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2 people found this helpful

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Excellent history of one of the most pivotal women

Excellent history of one of the most pivotal women in history. While I think the book extremely well researched and carries its argument well, it obviously fills any and all holes and cracks in its narrative with assumptive statements of only the best of the titular figure and only the worse of all male contemporaries.

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1 person found this helpful

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Confusing Matilda

The book was very informative and well written. The narrator was great. I found it tough at times to keep track of which Matilda was doing what during the battle.

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It’s perfect

The way in which the story flows, the narrator’voice and the careful investigation made for this book makes it a must listen!

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Hey this was great!

My favorite period of English history goes from Alfred to the Angevins and Empress Matilda is a key factor. Her life story is so fascinating!! I though the author did a great job telling the story in a balanced way: Matilda was unfairly lambasted by historians for too long, but she wasn't perfect. That's what makes her so interesting. The fact that Empress Matilda's daughter-in-law was Eleanor of Aquitaine adds an additional layer into the story of her life. The treatment Matilda received from her contemporaries is unfortunately too recognizable, and the suffering that her and Stephen's Anarchy inflicted on the people of the England and Normandy was hard to hear, but this woman has echoed through history and this is an excellent means by which to have her story told.

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A new view of Empress Matilda

This well-written and well-narrated audiobook provides a fresh perspective on Matilda. Long derided for her failures as a prospective queen of England, this book shows how her greatest disadvantage was the inability of the men of her time to envision a queen regnant. The qualities she portrayed, which would have been praised in a king or a queen consort, were criticized in her as arrogance. Yet her efforts on behalf of her son, Henry II, changed English history forever.

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