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Weir, Alison ListingsIf you cannot find what you want on this page, then please use our search feature to search all our listings. Click on Title to view full description
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Weir, Alison Eleanor of Aquitaine A Life
New York Ballantine Books 2000 0345405404 / 9780345405401 Hardcover Near Fine in Near Fine dust jacket
Tight clean unmarked book in lightly rubbed DJ ; 1.37 x 9.56 x 6.44 Inches; 464 pages; Renowned in her time for being the most beautiful woman in Europe, the wife of two kings and mother of three, Eleanor of Aquitaine was one of the great heroines of the Middle Ages. Despite the fact she lived in an age in which women were regarded as little more than chattel, Eleanor managed to defy convention as she exercised power in the political sphere and crucial influence over her husbands and sons. In this beautifully written new biography, Alison Weir, author of five widely acclaimed chronicles of England's royal rulers, paints a vibrant portrait of this truly exceptional woman, and provides new insights into her intimate life.
Born in 1122 into the sophisticated and cultured court of Poitiers, Eleanor came of age in a world of luxury, intrigue, bloody combat, and unbridled ambition. At only fifteen, she inherited one of the great fortunes of Europe--the prize duchy of Aquitaine--yet her father had been shrewd enough to realize that her future security lay in a powerful marriage. Consequently the sensual Duchess submitted to a union with the handsome but sexually withholding Louis VII, the teenage king of France. The marriage endured for fifteen fraught years, until Eleanor finally succeeded in having it annulled--only to enter an even stormier match with the aggressively virile, hot-tempered Henry of Anjou, who would soon ascend to the English throne as Henry II.
As Weir traces the fascinating intersection of public and private lives in Europe's twelfth-century courts, Eleanor comes to life as a complex, boldly original woman who transcended the mores of society. Eventually, after enduring Henry's flagrant infidelities, she showed herself a formidable and dangerous enemy of the King's interests by plotting to overthrow him with their sons Henry, Richard, and Geoffrey. A tireless political fighter and a born survivor, the humbled Queen emerged from sixteen years of imprisonment, age sixty-seven, to rule England with wisdom and panache during the absence of her son, King Richard the Lion Heart, while he fought in the ruinous Third Crusade.
Eleanor of Aquitaine lived a long life of many contrasts, of splendor and desolation, power and peril, and in this stunning biography, Alison Weir captures the woman--and the queen--in all her glory. With astonishing historic detail, mesmerizing pageantry, and irresistible accounts of royal scandal and intrigue, Weir recreates not only a remarkable personality but a magnificent past era. Eleanor of Aquitaine is the crowning achievement of an extraordinary career.
Price:
18.00 CAD
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Weir, Alison Mary, Queen of Scots and the Murder of Lord Darnley
Ballantine Books 2003 034543658x / 9780345436580 First Edition Hardcover Fine in Fine dust jacket
About new book in lightly rubbed DJ. ; 1.57 x 9.45 x 6.3 Inches; 688 pages; The acclaimed author of The Princes in the Tower now brilliantly investigates another of Britain’s notorious unsolved mysteries: the murder of Lord Darnley, second husband of Mary, Queen of Scots.
Tall, handsome, accomplished, and charming, Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley, had it all, including a strong claim to the English throne, a fact that threatened the already insecure Elizabeth I. She therefore opposed any plan for Darnley to marry her cousin, Mary, Queen of Scots, who herself claimed to be Queen of England. But in 1565 Mary met and fell in love with Darnley—and defied Elizabeth by marrying him. It was not long before she discovered that her new husband was weak and vicious, and interested only in securing sovereign power for himself.
On February 10, 1567, an explosion at his lodgings left Darnley dead. There were many who might have had a motive for murdering him, not least Mary herself. The intrigue thickened after it was discovered that apparently he had been suffocated before the blast. Emerging from the tragedy were more mysteries than any historian has ever satisfactorily solved.
Mary and Darnley’s marriage had been an adulterous disaster. After Darnley’s death, Mary showed favor to the powerful Earl of Bothwell, causing her enemies to accuse her of being his partner in both infidelity and murder. Mary insisted that the murder conspiracy had been aimed at her, and that she had escaped only by changing her plans at the last minute. It has even been suggested that Darnley himself had planned the explosion in order to kill her.
The murder of Darnley ultimately led to Mary’s ruin. After her deposition, there conveniently came to light a box of documents—the notorious Casket Letters—that her enemies claimed were proof of her guilt. But Mary was never allowed to see them, and they disappeared in 1584. The question of their authenticity has haunted historians ever since.
After exhaustive reexamination and reevaluation of the source material, Alison Weir has come up with a solution to this enduring mystery that can be substantiated by contemporary evidence, and in the process has shattered many of the misconceptions about Mary, Queen of Scots. Employing once more the bright writing and stunning characterizations that have made her a favorite writer of popular history, Weir has written one of her most engaging excursions into Britain’s bloodstained, power-obsessed past.
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14.00 CAD
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