Frances A. Underhill

A solid biography of the fourteenth-century English noblewoman Elizabeth de Burgh: granddaughter of a king, co-heiress of the great Clare estates, survivor of the Black Death and the fallout of one politically toxic husband, and the font of some voluminous household accounts which allow for the reconstruction of her daily life with some degree of accuracy. She is perhaps best known nowadays as the endowing patron of Clare College, Cambridge. Frances Underhill makes a good case here for her as a worthy object of study in her own right. True, Elizabeth's personal life and inner piety remain largely opaque by the book's end, but Underhill contextualises what we do know of Elizabeth's life with care through a series of first chronological and then thematic chapters. A worthwhile and quite accessible read for those interested in how a woman could wield authority in the High Middle Ages.… (más)