Published in 2025
344 pages
Dr Catherine Hanley holds a PhD in Medieval Studies (Sheffield, 2001), is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society and is the author of historical works in several genres. Her scholarly writing includes a monograph based on her PhD thesis and academic journal articles in the UK, US and France, as well as contributions to the Oxford Encyclopedia of Medieval Warfare and Military Technology. She has written seven books of popular history: three for Yale University Press, two for The History Press and one each for Osprey and Pen & Sword.
What is this book about?
Richard the Lionheart travelled to far-flung realms, went on crusade, met kings and popes, and exerted a great deal of influence on the world around him … and so did his sister.
The sons of Henry II and Eleanor of Aquitaine have been the subject of much historical attention, but their daughters have been curiously overlooked. The youngest of them, Joanna, led a particularly extraordinary life full of adventure and danger – and not a little controversy – that was more than a match for those of any of her brothers, including the famed Lionheart himself.
Lionessheart is Joanna’s story, and also an exploration of the wider world of the twelfth century as seen through the eyes of a woman who was a princess and a pioneer, a warrior and a wife, a captive and a queen.
