Wife of the Conqueror, First Queen of England

Matilda

The first English biography of the thrilling, tempestuous life of the 'first' Queen of England by a rising star in non-fiction

Tracy Borman tells this story with a steady eye and a steady hand, tracing what can be known of Matilda's part in the events that were to change the course of English history

Borman shows that Matilda was a capable regent and political operator... Matilda remains relevant: one legacy is her bloodline, which still rules in Britain today

A richly layered treatment of a stormy reign

Borman moves deftly between the difficult written sources... The often scanty details of Matilda's life are given more rounded form by viewing them in context

Borman has expertly forged an absorbing biography from fragments of her personal history

Tracy Borman studied and taught history at the University of Hull and was awarded a PhD in 1997. She went on to a successful career in heritage and has worked for a range of historic properties and national heritage organisations, including the National Archives and English Heritage. She is now Chief Executive of the Heritage Education Trust and also works part-time for Historic Royal Palaces. 
 
Tracy has regularly appeared on television and radio, and has featured in a range of magazine and newspaper articles. She is a regular contributor to history magazines, including articles in BBC History Magazine on the history of beauty and eighteenth-century 'It' Girls'. In addition, she also gives public talks and lectures on a wide range of subjects.

Read the thrilling, tempestuous story of the 'first' Queen of England. 
 
Matilda, wife of William the Conqueror, was the first woman to be crowned Queen of England and formally recognised as such by her subjects. Beyond this, however, little is known of her. No contemporary images of her remain, and the chroniclers of her age left us only the faintest clues as to her life. Who was this spectral queen? 
 
 In this first major biography, Tracy Borman sifts through the evidence to uncover an extraordinary story. Matilda was loving and pious, possessed strength, ambition and intelligence, and was fiercely independent. All of these attributes gave her unparalleled influence over William. Although Matilda would provide an inspiring template for future indomitable queens, these qualities also led to treachery, revolt and the fracturing of a dynasty. 
 
 Matilda: Wife of the Conqueror, First Queen of England takes us from the courts of Flanders to the opulence of royal life in England. Alive with intrigue, rumour and betrayal, it illuminates for the first time the life of an exceptional, brave and complex queen pivotal to the history of England.

The Hidden Story of the Virgin Queen

Elizabeth's Women

A groundbreaking and fascinating biography of England's most famous queen, viewed through the women who influenced her life.

Overall this is an enthralling picture of female empowerment and woman's place in this most testosterone fuelled of epochs. It is a thrilling and carefully written book which should grace any history lover's bookshelves

The idea behind her book is genuinely inspired

A warm and readable account... irresistible stuff

Innovative, full of rich, too often neglected female characters

Borman's compelling study has proved well-worth waiting for

Tracy Borman deals with this intricate web of relationships and intrigues with great expertise... Even if you have read a dozen books on Elizabeth, this one will surprise you

‘History as it should be written’ Alison Weir, bestselling author of the Six Tudor Queens series 
 
A groundbreaking and fascinating biography of England's most famous queen, viewed through the women who influenced her life. 
 
Elizabeth I is often portrayed as a ruthless 'man's woman', who derided her own sex – ‘I know I have the body of a weak and feeble woman' – and loved to flirt with the young men at her court. Yet she was born into a world of women and it is her relationships with these women that provide the most fascinating insight into the character of this remarkable monarch. 
 
 As a child Elizabeth was raised by her mother, governesses and stepmothers, while as an adult she was clothed, bathed and watched by her ladies of the bedchamber and her maids of honour. With them she was jealous, spiteful and cruel, as well as loyal, kind and protective. Among her family it was her female relations who had the greatest influence on her life: from her sister Mary, who distrusted and later imprisoned her, to her cousin, Mary, Queen of Scots, who posed a constant and dangerous threat to her crown for almost thirty years. 
 
 It was these women – and many more – who brought out the best – and worst – in Elizabeth and reveal the woman behind the carefully cultivated image of the Virgin Queen.

The Life and Times of Henrietta Howard

King's Mistress, Queen's Servant

First biography of the remarkable Henrietta Howard - royal mistress and bluestocking in the court of George II.

It is the great strength of Tracy Borman's engaging new biography that, like Alison Weir and David Starkey before her, she manages to throw new light on the influence and careers of women in European courts

Borman has certainly found an unsung and unusual heroine, what elevates her biography above the others in its genre is the author's sense of humour

Tracy Borman can tell a good story... [and] her subject is a gift

A short and zippy portrait of George II's long-suffering paramour

Tracy Borman handles her voluminous material with easy grace

Henrietta Howard, later Countess of Suffolk, was the long-term mistress and confidante of King George II. She was also, as Tracy Borman's wonderfully readable biography reveals, a dedicated patron of the arts; a lively and talented intellectual in her own right; a victim of adultery; a passionate advocate for the rights of women long before the dawn of feminism. Above all she was a woman of reason in an Age of Reason. The mark that this enigmatic and largely neglected royal mistress left on the society and culture of early Georgian England was to resonate well beyond the confines of the court, and can still be felt today.

Tracy Borman

Gripping… Stirring witchcraft, politics and sexual perversity into the cauldron of a superstitious age, Tracy Borman seasons her brew with suggestions of poisoning and the black arts.

Tracy Borman has written a thorough and beautifully researched social history of the early 1600s, taking in everything from folk medicine to James I’s sex life.

Tracy Borman has written a superb history of the witchcraze in early modern Europe focusing around this one case. Her book is enthralling and accurate… In many respects this is a triumph of popular historical writing.

A tantalising history... A panoramic survey of the witch craze that swept through Europe in the 16th and 17th centuries.

Borman provides a fascinating account of the circumstances surrounding the case.

This is an entertaining piece of research that brings back to life three women who had the misfortune to live during a period that was terrified of the unknown and sought to tame that fear by turning it into a handful of dust.

As a work on the horrific treatment of witches throughout history, in particular the 16th and 17th centuries, it is shocking and illuminating.

Fascinating history of witchcraft in England… An immensely readable and never less than gripping account of a society in flux and the women who suffered to enable its stability.

This is history at its most disturbing, and yet also most interesting.

Tracy Borman tells this strange, compelling and ultimately inconclusive story.

Borman’s enthusiasm and diligence keeps the history in place, while the central story, and the mysteries, lies and obfuscations that surround it, add a flavour of the detective novel.

The interest here lies in the accurate and plausible portrait of a whole society, from top to bottom… The details are fascinating

James I and the English Witch Hunts

September 1613. 
 
In Belvoir Castle, the heir of one of England’s great noble families falls suddenly and dangerously ill. His body is ‘tormented’ with violent convulsions. Within a few short weeks he will suffer an excruciating death. Soon the whole family will be stricken with the same terrifying symptoms. The second son, the last male of the line, will not survive. 
 
It is said witches are to blame. And so the Earl of Rutland’s sons will not be the last to die. 
 
Witches traces the dramatic events which unfolded at one of England’s oldest and most spectacular castles four hundred years ago. The case is among those which constitute the European witch craze of the 15th-18th centuries, when suspected witches were burned, hanged, or tortured by the thousand. Like those other cases, it is a tale of superstition, the darkest limits of the human imagination and, ultimately, injustice – a reminder of how paranoia and hysteria can create an environment in which nonconformism spells death. But as Tracy Borman reveals here, it is not quite typical. The most powerful and Machiavellian figure of the Jacobean court had a vested interest in events at Belvoir.He would mastermind a conspiracy that has remained hidden for centuries.

Tracy Borman

Praise for Witches

Gripping… Stirring witchcraft, politics and sexual perversity into the cauldron of a superstitious age, Tracy Borman seasons her brew with suggestions of poisoning and the black arts.

Tracy Borman has written a thorough and beautifully researched social history of the early 1600s, taking in everything from folk medicine to James I’s sex life.

Spellbinding

Gripping… Stirring witchcraft, politics and sexual perversity into the cauldron of a superstitious age, Tracy Borman seasons her brew with suggestions of poisoning and the black arts.

Tracy Borman has written a thorough and beautifully researched social history of the early 1600s, taking in everything from folk medicine to James I’s sex life.

Spellbinding

Gripping… Stirring witchcraft, politics and sexual perversity into the cauldron of a superstitious age, Tracy Borman seasons her brew with suggestions of poisoning and the black arts.

Tracy Borman has written a thorough and beautifully researched social history of the early 1600s, taking in everything from folk medicine to James I’s sex life.

Spellbinding

Books by Tracy Borman

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