When did the great union of Eleanor and Henry II go sour and why?   Chadwick answers this question in a fictional manner.  The answer isn’t sexual jealousy.  Or all of Eleanor’s teeth falling out. Thankfully, the novel is more than story of a failing marriage.  There is, in fact, a rather sweet love story between two supporting characters that balances the imploding royal marriage.  This love story is the tale of Isabella and Hamelin.  The couple functions as somewhat of a counterpoint to Henry […]

This book is a thumping good conclusion to Chadwick’s three book series about Eleanor of Aquitaine.  This last book, as the title indicates, is about the closing years of her life – the death of her husband Henry II to her own death.  She not only finishes weathering her imprisonment, but also the in fighting of two of her sons – her favorite Richard, and her last born John.  The novel opens with her release from prison and her movement to an uneasy truce with […]