Daughters of Chivalry: The Forgotten Children of Edward I
By Kelsey Wilson-Lee,
Picador, 346pp, £20/$25
To forget something you have to know it first. So, even for those of us with an interest in the Middle Ages and the Plantagenets, describing Edward I’s daughters as “forgotten children” is stretching it. Wilson-Lee’s book is not an exercise in recovered memory; I would guess that it breaks new ground for most readers. It does so very well – the author has worked diligently in the archives and read widely beyond them. We can probably take it that whatever there is to be known about the daughters who survived to adulthood is to be found here. The book will also serve as a rich quarry for romantic novelists.
