The King’s Women

by Deryn Lake

First published 1992

Amazon

3.8(754)

France is divided by the Hundred Years’ War when the unstable court of Charles VI and Queen Isabeau accepts Henry V of England as heir through the Treaty of Troyes, threatening the claims of their son, the future Charles VII. Charles survives politically because a circle of formidable women helps preserve his household and his cause, above all Yolande of Aragon and her daughter Marie of Anjou.

The novel follows the women who shape Charles’s fortunes from different positions: his mother Isabeau, his wife Marie, his political protector Yolande, Joan of Arc as the visionary commander who changes the course of the war, and later Agnès Sorel as royal mistress. Their competing loyalties place marriage, motherhood, sexuality and patronage inside the struggle for France, showing how dynastic survival depended on relationships that chronicles written around kings can push to the margins.

Historical Periods

Hundred Years’ War in France1337–1453 CE

Genres

Court & Political Fiction Dynastic & Royal Fiction Historical Sagas War Fiction

Historical people

Henry V of England1386–1422 Joan of Arc1412–1431 Catherine of Valois1401–1437 Charles VII of France1403–1461 Agnès Sorelc. 1422–1450 Isabeau of Bavaria1371–1435 Yolande of Aragon1381–1442 Marie of Anjou1404–1463