I enjoy reading nonfiction, including history. But this book did me in. I found it just too dry. Names, dates, and more names and dates. It read like a textbook. I respect the author's research. I just couldn't enjoy the book. ( )

Queen Joanna I of Naples, Jerusalem, and Sicily is a well written and carefully researched book about the little-known ruler in Medieval Italy, though there was no Italy at that time, but rather independent states governed in several different ways. Joanna rose to the position of queen when her grandfather died and willed the kingdom to her when she was barely 20. Though raised as royalty she ran into many difficulties as a female ruler, the main one being she and her husband lived apart from one another, consequently bearing no heir. As bright and adept as she was, the fact that she was female also was problematic in a time when warrior kings were the norm.
The author takes the reader carefully through Joanna's life. At times the level of detail bogs down the reader. In general however, it's a competent book, and sheds light of an previously ignored figure from the Middle Ages ( )

The Lady Queen opens dramatically and moves next to setting the local and European context for Joanna’s life and reign. The author uses an engaging , direct, storytelling voice. There are amusing descriptions of court and financial politics of the time and an occasional tongue in cheek tone.

The work, despite its title, is not a personal biography but a popular history of Europe centered on the events and consequences of Joanna’s life and reign. The history told is primarily political and does not include much in the way of economic, religious or cultural analysis. That work would have been huge.

Most of my previous history reading has focused on the British Isles and their relationships with France and Spain. This work significantly broadened my view of medieval European history and improved my understanding of the relationships between and among the great dramas of the period: the Hundred Years War, the Plague, the Great Schism (Who’s the Pope? Where’s the Pope?), and the first stirrings of the humanism of the Renaissance. I had not previously realized the spread of Angevin holdings, power and influence throughout Europe, beyond France and England.

While not new information for me, I was still taken aback at the extent to which royal women functioned primarily as political capital, like money in the bank almost, but more disposable and dispensable. Even while Joanna herself served as Queen, and for many years sole ruler, of one of the most prestigious kingdoms in Europe, she treated her female kin as political pawns and the spoils of wars lost and won. She had to in order to survive.

Joanna’s life was never easy and ended harshly, but the author is unapologetically an advocate for further research into and a more positive light put on Joanna’s reign and her role in history. In the Epilogue, Nancy Goldstone wrote:

“During her long and eventful reign, Joanna held together a large and far-flung dominion. … For more than thirty years, this queen fed the poor and cared for the sick; built churches and hospitals; reduced crime and promoted peace; protected trade and introduced new industry within her borders. She guided her subjects to recovery from the many instances of plague, war, famine, and depression endemic to the second half of the fourteenth century. … She has earned the right to be remembered for what she was: the last great sovereign in the Angevin tradition.

I enjoyed reading this work and value what I learned. I fully intend to find and read Goldstone’s earlier work, Four Queens. ( )

I came of age in the 1970s at the height of the Women’s Movement. It was a heady time full of marches and protests and petitions. Women’s Studies departments were formed at colleges and universities. The study of history, full of dead white men, was expanded to include herstory, bringing to light the lives and achievements of women in the past.

Women have come a long way since then, now full partners at home, in the workplace and in the history books. But I still find myself, when confronted with a choice of books, always reaching for the one by or about women.

It was with great anticipation that I began reading “The Lady Queen”. Imagine, a woman ruler in medieval Italy, surrounded by “chauvinist” aristocracy and popes who shamelessly exploited women. How did she come to rule? How was her rule different from the men who preceded her and then followed her? How did her subjects feel about being ruled by a woman? What, if any, changes did she make to Italian culture?

Sadly, only my first question was answered. The rest of the 300+ pages were filled with the usual battles, funerals, coronations, plots and counter-plots found in most history books. This book was written for a popular audience, yet it is all the things that everyone hates about history. Just a dry recitation of dates and historical figures.

Ms. Goldstone tries to excuse the paucity of material concerning the actual life and rule of Joanna on records that were lost during WWII. What I found most frustrating were the tantalizing hints of her life. Her concern with and improvement of healthcare, the arts, and religious orders are mentioned again and again but never expanded upon. I kept hoping for more details on them which would, directly or indirectly, tell me more about Joanna as a person and as a queen.

Joanna’s life was ended by assassination. There was a problem with what to do with her body because she had been excommunicated and couldn’t be buried in hallowed ground. A religious order, of whom she had been a benefactor, came up with a solution. I just wanted to scream. What had she done for them they were willing to put aside their religious convictions and provide her with a resting place?

Alas, this book does not live up to its title. I know very little more about Joanna and her “notorious reign” than I did before I read this superficial biography. ( )

The story has all the elements of a supermarket paperback -including murder, deception and insanity. This fascinating account by Nancy Goldstone follows the life of Joanna, the queen of Naples who ruled the southern third of Italy and portions of France for much of the 14th century. At a young age, Joanna, defends herself in Papal Court, against charges of murdering her first husband. She goes on to remarry and rule over one of Europe's most prestigious courts for more than 30 years, until she, herself, is murdered.

However, be warned, this is not a novel for light reading. Nancy Goldstone's research is exhaustive and this complicated history covers many years of detailed infighting. There is a huge cast of characters, often with confusing names and titles. But for those willing to work for it, the reward is a complex, satisfying tale and knowledge of an amazing and little known queen. ( )