Robert Bartlett's Blood Royal is a sprawling history of dynastic politics in medieval Europe has much to recommend it. Rather than concentrating on merely England, France, and Germany as many "histories of the European Middle Ages" do, Bartlett's scope encompasses Ireland to Byzantium and everywhere in between (or almost; that he even touches on Iceland but omits Kyivan Rus' is odd). The breadth of his coverage, both geographical and topical, verges on the encyclopaedic, and anyone who's read his work before will be unsurprised to hear that he has a great eye for the vivid anecdote.

But I'll be honest and say that having read scholarship by Barlett before, I was expecting more from this book. That I can describe it as verging on the encyclopaedic also points to one of the big issues with this book: it is a work of sprawling description rather than of analysis. I'm not quite sure who it's aimed for. It seems too long and dense to be read by the kind of general reader who would also watch one of Bartlett's BBC documentaries, but for the academic reader it seems to lack much by way of driving thrust. It's not a bad book by any means, and I'll gladly keep my copy around for reference, but I wasn't as impressed by this as I'd hoped to be. ( )

Robert Bartlett writes books that are thoroughly researched and well written. This book "Blood Royal" is everything you ever wanted to know about European royalty. Not just Britain but the continent too. What I love about this book is it has a lot of material about women. Women as in marriage, childbirth, mistresses, illegitimate children, legitimate children, death in childbirth, and most interesting women sovereigns. It even addressed the homesickness of a teenaged bride leaving everything she knows and going to a strange land with strange customs and a language she does not speak to marry a man she does not know. Also, she was expected to put a brave face on it and make the best of it. Not for me or my daughters, thank you. There is so much information I did get bogged down and it took me a while to read this book but it was worth it. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for allowing me to read this book in exchange for a review. ( )

This work will make a must have resource / reference for those with a penchant for medieval history. It is extremely well researched - so all the hard work is done for you - and is extensively noted with a comprehensive bibliography. There are many unique examples peppered throughout to support the information - so not just the standard, more familiar dynasties - which is easy to both read and understand.

Definitely one for my own personal library.

full review: https://melisendeslibrary.blogspot.com/2020/04/review-blood-royal-by-robert-bart... ( )