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Two Houses, Two Kingdoms

A History of France and England, 1100-1300

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Two Houses, Two Kingdoms

By: Catherine Hanley
Narrated by: Jennifer M. Dixon
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About this listen

An exhilarating, accessible chronicle of the ruling families of France and England, showing how two dynasties formed one extraordinary story

The twelfth and thirteenth centuries were a time of personal monarchy, when the close friendship or petty feuding between kings and queens could determine the course of history. The Capetians of France and the Angevins of England waged war, made peace, and intermarried. The lands under the control of the English king once reached to within a few miles of Paris, and those ruled by the French house, at their apogee, crossed the Channel and encompassed London itself.

In this lively, engaging history, Catherine Hanley traces the great clashes, and occasional friendships, of the two dynasties. Along the way, she emphasizes the fascinating and influential women of the houses—including Eleanor of Aquitaine and Blanche of Castille—and shows how personalities and familial bonds shaped the fate of two countries. This is a tale of two intertwined dynasties that shaped the present and the future of England and France, told through the stories of the people involved.

©2022 Catherine Hanley (P)2022 Tantor Europe France Great Britain Medieval England Royalty Middle Ages Friendship England France

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All stars
Most relevant
…if containing little we’ve not heard before. Still, a fresh perspective on well known rivalries with a sympathetic, detailed perspective on the lesser known female protagonists… and wonderfully pitiless accounts of male ‘hero’ warlords.

The narrator gets a lot better and the narrative is solid…

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Interesting part of history but really struggled due to the monotonous, flat voice of the narrator.

Great book but not worth listening to on Audible

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Really enjoyed this which helped understand the complex interwoven history of the French and English royal and leading families, recommended.

Fascinating historical account

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Genuinely fascinating...Hanley doesn't get bogged down in minutie or distracted by other diverting but irrelevant topics. Her focus is laser like on her subject which is the relationship between the House of Capet and plantagenet. very good 👍

fascinating

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By focusing firmly on the interactions between the French and English royal houses, with minimal focus on the wider machinations of the countries' respective nobilities or other polities except where it impacted that relationship, this offers up an interesting new (to me) view on an interesting, significant period. I studied this at A-level some 30-odd years ago, but it all felt fresh.

What's particularly helpful is the author's empathy for the various players as human beings - something that can often be lost in histories of this period. This especially comes out when looking at the various royal women - some great leaders and politicians in their own right, many treated as just baby-making machines, almost all of whom (bar the Empress Matilda, Eleanor of Aquitaine, and Blanche of Castillo) tend to get overlooked or dismissed in more traditional histories.

Despite this greater emphasis on the individual personalities and perspectives, however, this can still be hard to follow at times - far too many people called Henry, Louis, Phillip, William, Hugh, Arthur, and more. Without a handy timeline of who died when and family trees of both houses, it's extremely hard to keep track.

This makes an audiobook a poor format for consuming this one - especially as the narrator has a very harsh voice and a decidedly unempathetic tone, like an old-fashioned schoolmistress lecturing and hectoring,with some odd intonation and pronunciation.

A fresh angle on a familiar period

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