The paperback of ‘Lionessheart: The Life and Times of Joanna Plantagenet’ (paperback) by Catherine Hanley is published today.

Here is my 2025 interview with Catherine.
Lionessheart: The Life and Times of Joanna Plantagenet.
The paperback of ‘Lionessheart: The Life and Times of Joanna Plantagenet’ (paperback) by Catherine Hanley is published today.

Here is my 2025 interview with Catherine.
Lionessheart: The Life and Times of Joanna Plantagenet.

‘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.’
Further details – The History Press
Further details – Amazon.co.uk

‘Barbra Streisand sang about people needing people. Our sixteenth and seventeenth century monarchs needed trusted friends more than most in such uncertain times.
Among the people you will meet in this book is John Morton, so accomplished at gathering taxes for Henry VII; some pubs are named after him. Physician William Butts, trusted by Henry VIII, and sent to Hever when Anne Boleyn caught the sweating sickness. Barnaby Fitzpatrick, closest friend of Edward VI. Susan Clarencius, Mistress of the Robes to Mary I and her closest friend. Blanche Parry who rocked Elizabeth I’s cradle and stayed in her service until she died, causing Elizabeth ‘enormous sorrow’. Christopher Hatton, so devoted to Elizabeth, he never married. George Villiers, loved by James I ‘more than any other man’. Jane Whorwood, who did her utmost to help the imprisoned Charles I escape. Henry Jermyn, who became known as ‘the founder of the West End’. John Wilmot, an exceptionally clever man who ended life as a dissolute disgrace. Robert Harley, who built an incomparable collection of Saxon and Medieval texts now in the British Library. And not forgetting an accurate account of the life of Abigail Masham, devoted servant to Queen Anne.’
Further details – Pen and Sword
Further details – Amazon.co.uk
History Extra has an article about Jane.
The ‘Nine Days Queen’ is one of England’s most controversial monarchs – here’s why
