2024/11/22 by Lindy Grant · 1 voice
Arts and Humanities · #Historical Studies and Socio-cultural Analysis #European Political History Analysis #Medieval Literature and History
paper · doi:10.1093/fh/crae038
openalex publication_date 2024/11/22 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/29
One should start by saying that this book is aimed fairly and squarely at the wider public rather than an academic audience. Writing a good trade history book is much more difficult than it sounds, but this lively introduction to the Capetians largely succeeds. As the author says in her foreword, she has had great fun finding out about the personalities and the personal histories of the Capetian kings of France—and their queens—and she hopes that her readers will have as much fun too. And so they should, for her enjoyment is infectious. The focus of the book is the Capetian dynasty, between Hugh Capet who came to the French throne in 987, through to Charles IV, the last of the direct Capetian line, who died in 1328. The scene is set with a brisk introduction to the Merovingian and Carolingian realms. Hugh Capet was not the first of the dynasty to become king of West Francia—two of his forefathers did in the tenth century. And as Firnhaber-Baker observes, all subsequent kings of France—the Valois and the Bourbon—were themselves descended from the Capetian line, but from younger sons. The dynasty was unusually fortunate in producing an unbroken line of sons succeeding their fathers for almost three hundred and fifty years.