The Most Powerful Women in the Middle Ages: Queens, Saints, and Viking Slayers, From Empress Theodora to Elizabeth of Tudor

Loved this book! Not long to read and kept my interest. Informitive of these prominent women of this time.

This was very informative and entertaining. I learned about women I hadn't heard of before and new info on one's I did.

The content is of interest, but the volume doesn't appear to have been properly edited. Grammatical errors abound, and even incorrect use of phrases. For example, when trying to say that one of the women disliked an army of crusaders who ransacked as they passed her home, they said "this episode earned her the contempt," which means that the army had contempt for her, namely the reverse of the intent. These issues distract, and make one question the quality of the volume as a whole. Also, there are little glimpses of unfortunate misogyny. For example , a princess who bravely fought off Vikings who beset her bridal party on the way to a diplomatic marriage with her own sword is referred to as "the most lethal bridezilla in history". A stupid reference, and a telling attempt at humor.

Eight women who changed the world from the dark ages to the reformation. The women picked for the review are fascinating in their own right, but fused through the narrative is a subtle bias indicating that they did this by not taking on "masculine traits. It is not clear that drive, a sense of knowing and grit are strictly masculine traits, or ones that in a very rare occasion, a woman could aspire to these and still remain female. Raises interesting questions.

Short little stories about historical ladies who changed history. Women were taking care of business centuries sgo. They had to fight for their ideals, beliefs thrones, sons, daughters territory and property.A fun read for history buffs who enjoy hearing about some famous and some not so well known ladies.I bought it since I was traveling to Istanbul and it told the story of a Sultana who arose from a sex slave. I stayed to read all the others.Book has a sense of humor too

Overall, this book is quite interesting and enjoyable. However, I started noticing errors in the second half of the book, which became distracting. In the Margaret I of Denmark chapter, her successor is referred to as Eric and Erik. He also is first mentioned to be her great-nephew and later, her son. At one point, Joan of Arc is said to have fought the French. Queen Isabella's daughter is Joan and Joanna in the same paragraph. Also, some paragraphs are missing words. These are just some of the errors I noticed. Like I said, the book is interesting, but the errors are distracting.

This book enables you to see an overview of many female leaders in several countries over 1000 years of history. I was not aware of most of them, so this is a great jumping off point to learn more about these powerful women.

A really, really short synopsis of women, better suited for Middle School readers who want a quick and extremely basic review. $5.99 would make more sense.

This book is not a finely detailed book of great thickness, I bought it so I could get a good overview before I purchased another book with a lot more detail and analysis. The introduction is clear and quite precise and it sets out to my mind that it isn’t a great in depth book. Good for what I was looking for and I can see at least another 5-6 purchases coming up in the future with each person featured being looked at in detail. Very happy with the book

Here we have been given an appraisal of ten of the most powerful women of the Middle Ages, how they rose to power and how they wielded it. It makes absorbing reading, especially the chapters on women who are generally less well known. The book also discusses some of the common misconceptions of the role of women at this time. An informative and entertaining read.

This is a well researched book detailing some of history's lesser known powerful female figures. You will learn about some fascinating characters that overcame great obstacles and helped shape history. The author explores their backgrounds, how they managed to rise to power, what makes their accomplishments so notable and the impact they made on society after their deaths. If you are interested in learning more about inspiring women from history you will probably enjoy this book.

An interesting aspect of history. Well-written.

Good, if you are looking for a very simplistic retelling of historical figures. Reminded me of an old school history text book, although this book is written with pretty poor English.