Linda Elizabeth Mitchell

A very useful biography of Joan de Valence: one of the heirs to the wealthy Marshal lands and sister-in-law to Henry III of England. Her career as a dynast and administrator, though largely overlooked by previous historians, was an effective and busy one. Linda Mitchell has done a very good job in pulling together disparate sources from England, Wales, France and Ireland in order to tell Joan's story—I particularly liked her reconstruction of the "women's party" Joan had with several friends in the early months of her widowhood, the kind of detail it's so rare to find for the Middle Ages. I could have wished for a little more depth of context (the presumed audience I think is one which is already quite au fait with women's history), for better image quality, and for the fixing of some minor factual errors (e.g. Kilkenny Castle is not in Tipperary, it is in... Kilkenny), but these are on the whole minor quibbles. Mitchell succeeded in producing a successful composite portrait of Joan and her times.… (mer)