Blood Royal: Dynastic Politics in Medieval Europe
Robert Bartlett
Jul 2021 · Tantor Media Inc · Narrated by Jonathan Cowley
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19 hr 31 min
Unabridged
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About this audiobook
Throughout medieval Europe, for hundreds of years, monarchy was the way that politics worked in most countries. This meant power was in the hands of a family-a dynasty; that politics was family politics; and political life was shaped by the births, marriages and deaths of the ruling family. How did the dynastic system cope with female rule, or pretenders to the throne? How did dynasties use names, the numbering of rulers and the visual display of heraldry to express their identity? And why did some royal families survive and thrive, while others did not? Drawing on a rich and memorable body of sources, this engaging and original history of dynastic power in Latin Christendom and Byzantium explores the role played by family dynamics and family consciousness in the politics of the royal and imperial dynasties of Europe. From royal marriages and the birth of sons, to female sovereigns, mistresses and wicked uncles, Robert Bartlett makes enthralling sense of the complex web of internal rivalries and loyalties of the ruling dynasties and casts fresh light on an essential feature of the medieval world.
About the author
Robert Bartlett is professor emeritus at the University of St Andrews. His books include The Making of Europe, which won the Wolfson Literary Prize for History in 1994, and Why Can the Dead Do Such Great Things? He has written and presented several BBC documentary series, including Inside the Medieval Mind and The Normans.
Jonathan Cowley is a British voice actor who calls Los Angeles home. He has received AudioFile Earphones Awards for his narration of The Science of Evil by Simon Baron-Cohen, The Tower, the Zoo and the Tortoise by Julia Stuart, and The Angry Chef's Guide to Spotting Bullsh*t in the World of Food by Anthony Warner.
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