The Two Isabellas of King John
King John, of Magna Carta fame, married twice, and both wives were named Isabella. Since mediaeval spelling was inconsistent, McQuinn has decided to spell the first one Isabella and the second Isabelle.
We know nothing about Isabella, and what we know about Isabelle is from a few chroniclers who disliked her, not promising material for a double biography. But this is not a double biography. The two queens are pegs on which to hang a discussion about almost everything we know about upper-class women in England and France in the High Middle Ages. We have a long and instructive chapter on childhood in the Middle Ages, even though we know nothing at all about the childhood of either queen. The actual biographies do not start until page 70, and even then, they are used largely to introduce discussions on the legal, economic and sexual relationships of royal consorts.
Both queens survived John (John and Isabella divorced) and Isabelle has had a posthumous career as the main character in several historical novels—lack of hard evidence is no problem here—to which McQuinn devotes a final chapter.
I am not convinced either queen was very important in her own right, but the book has interesting things to say about women in the 12th and 13th centuries.
