Best-selling British novelist Weir puts her exemplary writing skills, as well as her talent for alternative and provocative insight into documents and historiography, to good use in a riveting biography of the wife of England's unfortunate Edward II (who reigned 1307-27). That the king was ineffectual is commonly accepted (he was deposed and later died; according to tradition, he was murdered in a most horrendous fashion), and Queen Isabella, born a princess of France, has borne all these many centuries the label she-wolf. Weir, in this book all British-history fans will devour, chooses, after much research and deliberation, to see her subject in more rounded terms than as one of the most notorious femme fatales in history. The author, in fact, takes giant steps to prove that Isabella, as instigator of her own husband's removal from the throne, contributed greatly to the decline in England of the power of the monarch and thus the rise of democracy. --Brad Hooper Copyright 2005 Booklist

Another engrossing biography of early English royalty from Weir (Henry VIII, 2001, etc.). Edward II's queen had been roundly scorned in her own time (1296-1358) and since by commentators, whose characterizations have ranged from "virago" and "Jezebel" to "She-Wolf . . . with unrelenting fangs." As is her wont, Weir goes for bold revisionism, aiming to "strip away the romantic legends and lurid myths" surrounding "this most vilified of queens." Her respectful portrait, aided by a generation of feminist historiography, depicts as understandable, even empowering, the very adultery and treason that tainted Isabella in the past. Refreshingly different, Weir's interpretation doesn't neglect the basic facts: Born in France to King Philip IV and Jeanne of Navarre, Isabella was betrothed to Edward at age seven. The marriage, celebrated when she was 12, attempted to settle long-standing conflicts between France and England. Edward was a hunk, and Isabella was reported to be the most beautiful woman in Europe, but theirs was hardly a match made in heaven. Edward, whose sexual proclivities ran towards men, virtually ignored his queen while lavishing attention on his friend Piers Gaveston. Eventually, Isabella returned to France, had an affair with exiled English traitor Roger Mortimer and gathered an army to overthrow her husband. Just who engineered Edward II's murder has always been something of a mystery, inspiring rumor and speculation in both the 1300s and the present. Weir's careful reconstruction of his death is especially valuable. Was Isabella behind the dastardly deed? You'll have to read the book to find out... Sure to reign as the definitive word on Queen Isabella for years to come. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

With their gaps, silences, and strangeness, medieval lives deny easy retelling. This is even more true for medieval women, whose subordinate status in their own times has too often silenced them in the present. Isabella, the unhappy consort of the tragically incompetent King Edward II, has had the added misfortune of being vilified as a manipulative, adulterous, murdering virago. Weir's biography attempts to tell her life and repair her badly damaged reputation. Isabella's life and times are inherently interesting, and this popular treatment takes every opportunity to instruct and excite readers whose life's work or pastime is not the study of the later Middle Ages. For specialists, however, this blow-by-blow treatment can at times be wearying. In terms of character restoration, Weir is right to admire Isabella's intelligence, toughness, and love for her children, and to chastise the queen's avarice and overly dependent relationship with Mortimer. Also correct is her contention that Isabella was in an impossible situation until her son Edward III's assertion of his right to rule (and violent removal of Mortimer) in 1330. Less easy to accept are the speculations regarding Edward II's sexual relationship with the younger Despenser, and the credence given to the story of that king's survival as a hermit in Lombardy. ^BSumming Up: Recommended. General, public, and undergraduate libraries. C. F. Briggs Georgia Southern University

Popular British historian Weir (Eleanor of Aquitane) here seeks to establish a more sympathetic understanding of one of the most notorious queens in English history. Daughter of France's King Philip IV, Isabella (ca. 1295-1358) was unhappily married to England's gay or bisexual King Edward II. Though he fathered children with Isabella, Edward's real affections were for a series of male favorites, who gained untoward influence over affairs of the kingdom. Isabella, in the meantime, began an affair with Roger Mortimer, the Earl of March, and together they overthrew Edward, imprisoned him, and may have murdered him (against tradition, Weir disclaims Isabella's part in the murder). Their plan to rule England failed when her 18-year-old son, the future Edward III, seized and executed Mortimer and placed his mother under house arrest for the rest of her life. Weir believes that Isabella deserves credit for bringing about "the first constitutional deposition by Parliament of an English king," firmly establishing processes for parliamentary power over the Crown. She would have been appalled at the democracy that such a trend eventually produced, as Weir acknowledges. A lively work on a colorful period of English history; recommended for academic and public libraries. [See Prepub Alert, LJ 6/1/05.]-Robert J. Andrews, Duluth P.L. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Isabella of France (1295?-1358) married the bisexual Edward II of England as a 12-year-old, lived with him for 17 years, bore him four children, fled to France in fear of his powerful favorite, returned with her lover, Roger Mortimer, to lead a rebellion and place her son on the throne and eventually saw Mortimer executed as her son asserted his power. Veteran biographer Weir (Eleanor of Aquitaine, etc.) battles Isabella's near-contemporaries and later storytellers and historians for control of the narrative, successfully rescuing the queen from writers all too willing to imagine the worst of a medieval woman who dared pursue power. Weir makes great use of inventories to recreate Isabella's activities and surroundings and, strikingly, to establish the timing of the queen's turn against her husband and her probable ignorance of the plot to kill him. Weir convincingly argues that the infamous story of Edward II being murdered with a red-hot iron emerged from propaganda against Isabella and Mortimer. (Her unlikely assertion that Edward escaped and lived out his life as a hermit is less believable.) Weir presents a fascinating rewriting of a controversial life that should supersede all previous accounts. Isabella is so intertwined with the greatest figures of her century and the next that any reader of English history will want this book. Maps not seen by PW. Agent, Julian Alexander. (On sale Oct. 11) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved