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RickUWS
Feb 13, 2012RickUWS rated this title 4 out of 5 stars
The scholarship of the book is unquestionably extensive and probably exhaustive. There is a lot of information, most of it pertinent, some of it pretty irrelevant to any but the most deeply involved reader. I evemtia;;u quickly of the style that attempts to imitate the chroniclers she relied on for her research and that inhibits understanding. Her personalization through constantly referring to the Angevin, Plantagenet, Capetian or Poitevin nature or character is silly and unnecessary. Despite the Roman Catholic Church's and especially their pope's involvement in the politics and even warfare, her apparent affection for the institution is troubling and makes one question her reliability in other matters. The book is a fine read if exhausting in some of the tedious accounts of marriages and petty local politics. It is a credit to the author that what appears to be the magnum opus of her life's work has stood up so well for more than a half-century. She captures well the sweep of the historical trends that included 2 crusades and huge geopolitical changes in northwestern Europe. The reader appreciates better the life and role of what is certainly the most adept and important woman of her period, when women were not even recognized as people.