A book like this one has to overcome three major hurdles.

First, there really isn't a lot of material about these women.

Second, what we do know is very repetitious. Not only the various stages of their lives, but also the names get to sounding very familiar.

Third, as each chapter is by a different scholar, there isn't a lot of continuity.

Somehow in this case the whole thing did come together. Maybe even due to the different authors, there was enough variation to make reading interesting.

I must say that I am glad not to have been born in the place of one of these women. Generally at a very young age sent out into a foreign country to marry a stranger, and then have to deal with politics as well as the pressure to bear children.

You really have to wonder at one of the authors who describes a bride of 10-14, who didn't actually have her first baby until she had been married almost a decade. (Glad someone had some sense.) And then he notes that it is even later before there is evidence that she influenced her much older husband in some of his rulings, or stood in for him while he was in another part of the empire. To my mind still very young for the responsibilities she had!

If you are interested in women of the middle ages, it is worth reading this book. They may not have been typical, but there is almost enough data to get a feel for their lives. ( )