Showing results for "The Middle Ages" in Women

How can I be nearing middle age when 26 feels like yesterday? After the craziness of my 20s and hard work of my 30s, what’s next? Who am I now that youth is behind me? These were the questions Lise Carlaw and Sarah Wills asked themselves as they entered a milestone decade—their 40s. And they’re not alone. The second phase of life can seem daunting. But it’s so much more too. There is power in knowing who you are, ditching ‘nice’ for what’s important and arriving at the stage in your life when you decide rather than ‘slide’.

Virginal, chaste, humble, patiently waiting for rescue by brave knights and handsome princes: this idealized—and largely mythical—notion of the medieval noblewoman still lingers. Yet the reality was very different, as Kelcey Wilson-Lee shows in this vibrant account of the five daughters of Edward I, often known as Longshanks. The lives of these sisters—Eleanora, Joanna, Margaret, Mary, and Elizabeth—ran the gamut of experiences open to royal women in the Middle Ages.