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Empress Matilda, “one of the strongest female personalities of twelfth-century English history�� �� “did not rise to acknowledge men who bowed to her�� (and there were few enough of those), �� “and she refused to listen to their advice��.

Although Henry I, who died in 1135, had bastard sons aplenty, his only surviving legitimate “heir�� was (gasp!) a female and a feisty one at that with the strength of character and the intelligence to back it up. LADY OF THE ENGLISH is her story �� her tempestuous and much despised marriage to the arrogant and, hardly surprisingly, deeply misogynist Geoffrey Plantagenet of Anjou; her battle with her father before his death for “lordship�� over her dower lands and castles in England and for his official acknowledgement as the heir to the throne (despite her sex, of course); her extended bloody “civil�� war against Stephen, the erstwhile pretender to the throne of England after Henry’s death; her cordial, indeed loving, relationship with her stepmother despite her marriage after Henry’s death to a firm supporter of Stephen as the proper heir to the throne and his refusal to acknowledge Matilda’s claims; and her ultimate success at ensuring her brilliant son’s ascension to the throne of England as Henry II.

Chadwick’s introduction of the dramatis personae in a complex story was reasonably well-done but, in my estimation, it was not quite as smooth nor as easily understood as Sharon Kay Penman’s efforts in WHEN CHRIST AND HIS SAINTS SLEPT. That said, once the character’s names and relationships became planted in my mind without continuing reference to the absolutely essential family tree included, LADY OF THE ENGLISH was definitely a thoroughly satisfying, compelling, entertaining, and informative piece of historical fiction that deserves the attention of every lover of the genre centered on the colored tales of medieval England.

Paul Weiss