Daughters of Chivalry The Forgotten Children of King Edward Longshanks

Virginal, chaste, humble, patiently waiting for rescue by brave knights and handsome princes: this idealized―and largely mythical―notion of the medieval noblewoman still lingers. Yet the reality was very different, as Kelcey Wilson-Lee shows in this vibrant account of the five daughters of the great English king, Edward I, often known as Longshanks.
The lives of these sisters―Eleanora, Joanna, Margaret, Mary and Elizabeth―ran the full gamut of experiences open to royal women in the Middle Ages. Living as they did in a courtly culture founded on romantic longing and brilliant pageantry, they knew that a princess was to be chaste yet a mother to many children, preferably sons; meek, yet able to influence a recalcitrant husband or even command a host of men-at-arms. Edward's daughters were of course expected to cement alliances and secure lands and territory by making great dynastic marriages, or endow religious houses with royal favor. But they also skillfully managed enormous households, navigated choppy diplomatic waters and promoted their family's cause throughout Europe―and had the courage to defy their royal father. They might never wear the crown in their own right, but they were utterly confident of their crucial role in the spectacle of medieval kingship.
Drawing on a wide range of contemporary sources,
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