Daughters of Chivalry

Virginal, chaste, humble, patiently waiting for rescue by brave knights and handsome princes: this idealizedand largely mythicalnotion 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 Edward I, often known as Longshanks.The lives of these sistersEleanora, Joanna, Margaret, Mary and Elizabethran the gamut of experiences open to royal women in the Middle Ages. 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 Europeand 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, Daughters of Chivalry offers a rich portrait of these formidable women, seeing themat long lastshine from out of the shadows, revealing what it was to be a princess in the Age of Chivalry.