Great Medieval Biographies Part I

hi everyone I hope you're having a great weekend and if you're celebrating Easter happy Easter I wanted to hop on and share with you some of my favorite medieval biographies we are in the second quarter of historathon 2023 and this um this period focuses on the Middle Ages last week I shared with you some of my favorite books on the Middle Ages and this week I want to specifically focus on biographies these biographies that I'm going to share with you are just on men um next week I will share with you my favorite my favorite biographies on women do you want to keep them separate because I think the way that women and men are treated throughout history um the Middle Ages being no exception is is different by contemporary resources and and by historians so I just want to have a separate discussion there so without further Ado I will share with these with you in chronological order we've got quite a few to get through but hopefully this gives you some ideas for historathon 2023 if you're still not sure what you want to read so firstly we have the greatest Night by Thomas ashbridge this is a biography on one of England's most famous Knights William Marshall William Marshall led a very interesting life um he was the Second Son of a minor Lord he was not well liked by his father um but through a series of I guess serendipitous events and and blood relations he managed to um get a firm stepping in in um in his role as a knight as a young Knight and um as I mentioned quite serendipitously he manages to rescue Eleanor of Aquitaine from being kidnapped and she ended he ended up serving Eleanor and and her family a series of five Kings throughout his life so he led a very interesting life I think Thomas esbridge did a good job of um detailing his life um Beyond just what the legend says so I this is well worth a read anyways moving on next we have King of the North Wind by Claudia gold um a life of Henry II in five acts I really enjoyed this biography of Henry II I think um Henry II probably doesn't get that much attention when it comes to the plantagenet rulers of of England he is the king who manages to um I'll backtrack a bit so he is the first plantagenet king of England um the name plantagenet comes from his father Jeffrey Yvonne Zhu who wore um a yellow flower in his hair that was called plantagenet I think but um his mother was finding a brutal and long Civil War with King Stephen who usurped the throne from her and eventually um Henry II manages to reclaim the throne for the family um I the reason why I like this biography so much and the title will give you an indication um I think whenever you read a bio of Henry II and his family it's well known that they didn't get along and they were always scheming against one another and that's quite a shame because he seemed like he loved his family very much but um I guess what she puts it down to is the fact that he didn't want to give away power and the title as it suggests you know this could um you know his his life could almost be a Shakespearean tragedy it he had so much promise um he had so much success and power and um I guess towards the end of his life there was just a lot of of pain and suffering when it came to his family but anyways this was a great biography and I really enjoyed it there was a lot more on Jeffrey of anju in here which I enjoyed um as opposed to other sources or resources so that was quite enjoyable to hear more about his father but we move on so the next bio these I've got a few Kindle reads here to share with you um so next we have the song of Simon De Mumford and this is by Sophie teres ambley I think she's French and I think that was my French pronunciation but anyways this was an excellent biography on Simon De Mumford who in England led the Barons Wars against Henry III and ultimately had a hand in the creation of the provisions of um Simon De Mumford was the younger son of um his father who was also named Simon to Mumford and this diamond of Montfort is pretty famous in in England for leading or being um being involved in the albigensian Crusade which was an inquisition in the south of France to Stamp Out the cathar heresy so um what Sophie um explains throughout this novel is just maybe how his father had a real impact on his personality um because Simon De Mumford could be seen as as a real crusading Fanatic in um in England he also had a very interesting relationship with Henry III they were on friendly terms but he married his sister behind his back which the king wasn't too happy about and it seemed like he had a much more forceful personality than Henry III so it was a very interesting look at the dynamic battle between Henry um between Simon and between Henry and making sure that you know his prerogative as as an Earl wasn't Stamped Out by Henry who was also trying to preserve his Royal prerogative but anyways it was a very a very great biography and I think Sophie did a great job of um highlighting all aspects of his personality um Simon uh I guess this isn't objective of me but he's not the most likable person in history for a lot of reasons but he did I suppose a lot for England um so yeah it was a great biography and I enjoyed it a lot moving on um we have let me just see what's next in the queue uh we've got this a great and terrible King a biography on Edward the first by Mark Morris so this follows from the biography that I just showed you so Edward the first um had a hand in these Baron Wars Henry III was his father and perhaps the way he saw Henry III being you know pushed around I reckon might have had an impact on the formation of Edward's personality and I wanted to read a biography on him just to understand a bit more about his his formational years um because when you read or hear about him in pop culture he's known as Edward the Longshanks you know the Hammer of the Scots just a real brutal self-assured King and I wanted to hear more about him the other aspects of his personality and I thought this was a great biography for doing so so as we move on going back to the Kindle now I hope I'm staying in chronological order I'm pretty sure I am but anyways this is by far my favorite biography in the Middle Ages this is Ian mortimer's the greatest Trader and this is about the life of Sir Roger Mortimer who was the first Earl of March he was the one who deposed Edward II um had an affair with his wife and withheld power and and was basically the Puppet Master for the government um behind the scenes for Edward III um for a period of three years and I've always wondered why someone who was seemingly so intelligent and scheming and so resourceful as Roger Mortimer um seemingly for the greater good for deposing Edward II would do something that seemed like it was just a you know Surefire way of getting himself executed you know he couldn't he he must have realized that the the path of Destruction that he was on wouldn't last and I think Ian Mortimer did a great job of explaining things from Roger's perspective he has a great way of getting into the head of a of a medieval person Ian Mortimer does and I think he was able to explain perhaps why he made some of the decisions that he did without just putting it down to him being a greedy um a greedy wife stealer and Thrones dealer which all happened I suppose but um I really enjoyed this biography um for the attempt that he made at getting into Roger's mind so moving on just looking at the books around me trying to figure out what's next which I think would be yeah the black prince um this is by Michael Jones and I thought this was an excellent biography on Edward the black prince he is the son of Edward III who is one of medieval history's most famous Kings well known for being a warrior and black prince was um the air he had a lot of promise and I think Michael Jones did a great job of getting uh helping us understand a bit about his personality I suppose he's known for having a bit of a temper um but also helping us understand the softer side of his personalities the the the moments where he may be not that he was maybe not so self-assured um the tragic events in his life I really enjoyed the uh this biography for for detailing his life um and then we'll move on to his brother this is a biography by Helen Carr called the red Prince John of gaunt I really enjoyed this because John of gaunt does not have a very good reputation um even now or amongst his contemporaries um there were there were a lot of attempts against his life people who believed that he just wanted to take the throne for himself he was seen as greedy and avaricious for his attempts to take the Throne of Castile all of these things happened but again that you know those um there were aspects of his personality where we could we can see a much more well well-rounded individual who left his family um and perhaps he might have just be been seen as as you know a very loyal son brother Uncle father um in his attempts to to do the things that he did and I think Helen Carr did a great job of trying to tip the balance in the other direction from those negative viewpoints and and try to be a bit more objective I think she maybe went a bit more on the other side um in trying to explain things so there was a lot of sympathetic language um but I think for the most part she did a great job of of detailing his life uh the only thing I would say about this book is there's a lot of typos in in this Edition which um I found quite irksome but otherwise uh this is a great book and the red Prince if anyone is wondering I I haven't heard him called this before I think this might be Helen's way of drawing an association between his famous brother the black prince but um if you're familiar with the War of the Roses or English History um the duchy of Lancaster or the county of Lancaster um is its symbol is the red rose he was the Duke of Lancaster hence the red Prince sorry for that really long explanation but if anyone's wondering um great bio on a great individual from history um and then moving on we have another oh that disappeared this is a terrible title uh and you probably can't see it um this is a bio also by Ian Mortimer called the fears of Henry IV this is about John of God's son Henry IV who usurped the throne from his cousin Richard II um the fears of Henry IV I think that's a very apt title this is a bio of of um Henry also known as Henry balling broke before he became king um he had so much promise when he came to the throne even before beforehand he he led such a very um blessed life and then unfortunately after he took the throne things just sort of went downhill from there um for you know things Beyond his control things maybe he might have been able to control but otherwise a great bio on on um one of one of the most unfortunate games in medieval history um and then I've got one more to share with you this is not about um royalty or anyone in the nobility but I'm gonna throw this in because I really enjoyed it this is the friar of kakusan um this is by Stephen O'Shea Steven O'Shea wrote one of my favorite books called the perfect heresy this is about the cathar Inquisition the friar of Carcassonne takes place a bit later than the albigensian Crusade this is about the friar Bernard pardon the French Bernard delicioux who is trying to Stamp Out the Inquisition and Garner support from secular Authority um like the king of France at the time to really push out the Inquisition from the languidoc region so this is a great biography on one of histories um probably least um understood or least well-known rabble rousers so great bio those are some of my favorite medieval biographies um hopefully you've enjoyed this let me know what you think if you're going to pick any of these up um and like I say Happy Easter if you're celebrating and I'll see you next time bye for now