WELCOME TO RACHEL’S FICTION WRITING AND REVIEWS BLOG
This is where Rachel keeps you up to date with her novels and stories and also shares reviews, highlights and extracts from other authors.
Who Was the Worst Misogynistic Villain of the 12th Century?
Beneath the poetry of the romantic idyll of medieval Europe their lay a darker reality - institutionalised misogyny. Many women - queens, countesses, widows, even nuns - were treated as pawns, prisoners, or prey by the very men who should have honoured them.
In this series, ‘Medieval Misogyny’, we’ve met five men whose names deserve to be remembered not for their glory, but for their cruelty. Each used his power to diminish, exploit, or abuse women. Now it’s time to decide: who was the worst villain of them all?
Henry II of England – The Jailer of Queens
When Henry of Anjou (later Henry II, also known as Henry Plantagenet) married Eleanor of Aquitaine in 1152, they created a political alliance of breath taking scale. Henry was heir to the English throne; Eleanor, just divorced from King Louis VII of France, brought with her the duchy of Aquitaine, one of the wealthiest and most independent regions in Europe.
For a time, their marriage was a true partnership. Eleanor rode beside Henry on campaign, governed Aquitaine in his name, and bore him eight children. Together, they forged the Angevin Empire stretching from the Scottish borders to the Pyrenees.
But power and passion soured into mistrust. By the 1170s, the marriage had collapsed into open hostility.
LADY OF LINCOLN longlisted for the Chaucer Award!
LADY OF LINCOLN has been longlisted for the 2025 Chaucer Award for early historical fiction!
This award ‘recognizes emerging new talent and outstanding works in the genre of Early Historical (Pre- 1750) Fiction’, celebrating stories that transport readers deep into the past, and I’m thrilled that the amazing Nicola de la Haye’s story is being recognised amongst other great novels.
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