The life of the medieval queens of England was full of events - love, intrigue, betrayal, adultery and wars. But the details of their biographies, after many centuries of silence, were blurred from historical memory, and what really happened in the interpretation of biographers of subsequent centuries was overgrown with legendary details. Acclaimed biographical genre master Alison Ware suggests touching the most reliable sources to separate the authentic lives of several of these prominent women from the centuries-old patina of romantic lore and restore them to their rightful place in history. This monumental royal saga covers the years from the Norman Conquest of 1066 to 1154, when Henry II and his wife Alienora of Aquitaine ascended the throne and became the first queen of the Plantagenet dynasty. Other heroines of this documentary epic: William the Conqueror's wife Matilda of Flanders, Matilda of Scotland, revered as the "mother of all Englishmen," and Empress Maud, the first female ruler of England, whose son - King Henry II - subsequently founded the Plantagenet dynasty.