Eighteen women. Eighteen stories. Each one unique. Some never told before.
They are the semi-forgotten women of European medieval history. This is the first compendium of detailed scholarly biographies of the countesses and queens of the Kingdom of Sicily during the Hauteville and Hohenstaufen reigns, based on original research in medieval charters, chronicles and letters, augmented by extensive on-site research at castles, cathedrals and towns across Europe.
The multicultural Kingdom of Sicily described here encompassed the island and nearly half of the Italian peninsula. It was one of the most powerful kingdoms of Europe and the Mediterranean. Its queens came from Italy, England, France, Spain, Portugal, Germany, Greece and elsewhere, constituting a cosmopolitan sisterhood.
The book includes eighteen biographies of varying length and such details as original translations from medieval records (in Latin and Sicilian). It contains twenty pages of maps, two dozen genealogical tables, photos of royal charters and other manuscripts, pictures of places the author visited while researching this work, a detailed timeline, over seven hundred endnotes and a lengthy index. Reflecting research in several countries, this is a peer-reviewed monograph in the “Sicilian Medieval Studies” series.
