Two Houses, Two Kingdoms

A History of France and England, 1100-1300

By: Catherine Hanley

Narrated by: Jennifer M. Dixon

An exhilarating, accessible chronicle of the ruling families of France and England, showing how two dynasties formed one extraordinary story

The twelfth and thirteenth centuries were a time of personal monarchy, when the close friendship or petty feuding between kings and queens could determine the course of history. The Capetians of France and the Angevins of England waged war, made peace, and intermarried. The lands under the control of the English king once reached to within a few miles of Paris, and those ruled by the French house, at their apogee, crossed the Channel and encompassed London itself.

In this lively, engaging history, Catherine Hanley traces the great clashes, and occasional friendships, of the two dynasties. Along the way, she emphasizes the fascinating and influential women of the houses—including Eleanor of Aquitaine and Blanche of Castille—and shows how personalities and familial bonds shaped the fate of two countries. This is a tale of two intertwined dynasties that shaped the present and the future of England and France, told through the stories of the people involved.

©2022 Catherine Hanley (P)2022 Tantor

Good book worth the time

Americans find the subject of English and European royalty interesting (without having an interest in adopting the form of government). It's the common ancestry I suppose. Most of us lose interest in anything before Henry VIII, and we start getting cross-eyed at the hundreds of years of people with the same names seemingly fighting the same wars and battles. This author does an excellent job of covering those years by telling the most interesting stories of lots of them without betting bogged down. The narrator does a job at delivering those stories to the listener. All in all, I enjoyed the book and found it well worth my time.

Love this time period, too many names

I really enjoy learning more about this period in history but the sheer volume of names given in this work was almost impossible to keep up with. I really wish it came with a PDF containing an extended family tree of the concerned parties. A map, too, would be a great companion because of the importance that various land holdings and castles play. I'm ultimately glad I read it, but also glad I didn't have to spend a credit on it.

Cool crash course for the monarchs of the high Middle Ages

This moves quickly, but gets into all the details needed. There isn’t much embellishment here, and the author prefers to remove what embellishment was added by historians of the age or today.

It’s a quick “just the facts” run-through of the middle monarchs in England and France and deals mostly with their relationship to each other. This means much of the history of the two kingdoms themselves is glossed over (wars in Wales, Spain, Scotland, Italy, and Germany). Footnoting these details allows the book to be brief and to the point, and successfully paints a picture of two houses and two kingdoms that can certainly look like a single house of a fractured kingdom.

Great book with a bit of slant

This was a great book with enriching information. My only criticism is that the author indulges in the fallacy that, if women were given equal opportunities to men, they would be better leaders. It's true that inequality towards women was and is wrong and has rob us of historical information. But, if women of this time were put on equal footing they would simply mirror men. Both are human and, as such, some will be good and others will be corrupt. Women should have been treated equally but the assumption that they would have been superior to men is fanciful. They would have been themselves; good, bad and horrific. We know because some of the women who did get in power were just and others were monsters. It was all done on a smaller scale compared to men but human nature is still there.

Good, lots of backstory. It will help you sort who

I've listened to hundreds obooks on medieval Great Britain and never found them boring...until now. I just couldn't get focused on the material and I noticed I was rewinding a lot.
Well, I was able to listen to the stories provided and enjoyed they.
Itsn

Good history

I enjoyed this history of rival medieval dynasties. This is the set up for the 100 years war.

Excellent!

Great history lesson. Very thorough, Well written and engagingly narrated. I’ve often been lost and confused with the intersection of England and France Royal Family connections. So many Luis and Henries, John, Phillip and Edwards. Not to mention the overlapping uses of the names of the Queens. This book covered the part of the history that confused me the most and dropped me off at the beginning of the errors that I’ve understood and enjoyed for most of my adult life. Also, I can now better understand the fictitious novels written about the people this book covers. Excellent! Thank you!

A lot of information, well presented

I liked the story/history, it was pleasantly presented and not romanticized, tough times glad I’m not there.

Details, Details, Details

While this book might not be for everyone because of the in-depth details that the author provides....

That is what kept me interested. Who was going to marry whom, war with, and die either in child birth, infant mortality by dysentery, or in rare cases on the battlefield.

The world was so different than it is today, child weddings, births hoping for a boy and having 9 and in some cases more children before the woman was 30!!

Even with the numerous names being the same the author keeps them straight as she tells the story of these to Kingdoms. All that was done to keep them strong and relevant, only as we know to have it thrown away in the centuries that followed.