Non-fiction – Catherine Hanley

1217: The Battles that Saved England

Published by Osprey in 2024
ISBN: 9781472860873 (hardback)

The twelfth and thirteenth centuries were a time of personal monarchy, when the close friendsIn 1215 King John had agreed to the terms of Magna Carta, but he then reneged on his word, plunging the kingdom into war. The rebellious barons offered the throne to the French prince Louis and set off the chain of events that almost changed the course of English history.

Louis first arrived in May 1216, was proclaimed king in the heart of London, and by the autumn had around half of England under his control. However, the choice of a French prince had enormous repercussions: now not merely an internal rebellion, but a war in which the defenders were battling to prevent a foreign takeover. John’s death in October 1216 left the throne in the hands of his nine-year-old son, Henry, and his regent, William Marshal, which changed the face of the war again, for now the king trying to fight off an invader was not a hated tyrant but an innocent child.

1217 charts the nascent sense of national identity that began to swell. Three key battles would determine England’s destiny. The fortress of Dover was besieged, the city of Lincoln was attacked, and a great invasion force set sail and, unusually for the time, was intercepted at sea. Catherine Hanley expertly navigates medieval siege warfare, royal politics, and fighting at sea to bring this remarkable period of English history to life.

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Two Houses, Two Kingdoms: A History of France and England, 1100-1300

Published by Yale University Press in 2022
ISBN: 9780300253580 (hardback)

The twelfth and thirteenth centuries were a time of personal monarchy, when the close friendship or petty feuding between kings and queens could determine the course of history. The Capetians of France and the Angevins of England waged war, made peace, and intermarried. The lands under the control of the English king once reached to within a few miles of Paris, and those ruled by the French house, at their apogee, crossed the Channel and encompassed London itself.

In this lively, engaging history, Catherine Hanley traces the great clashes, and occasional friendships, of the two dynasties. Along the way, she emphasizes the fascinating and influential women of the houses—including Eleanor of Aquitaine and Blanche of Castille—and shows how personalities and familial bonds shaped the fate of two countries. This is a tale of two intertwined dynasties that shaped the present and the future of England and France, told through the stories of the people involved.

Matilda was a daughter, wife, and mother. But she was also empress, heir to the English crown—the first woman ever to hold the position—and an able military general.

This new biography explores Matilda’s achievements as military and political leader, and sets her life and career in full context. Catherine Hanley provides fresh insight into Matilda’s campaign to claim the title of queen, her approach to allied kingdoms and rival rulers, and her role in the succession crisis. Hanley highlights how Matilda fought for the throne, and argues that although she never sat on it herself her reward was to see her son become king. Extraordinarily, her line has continued through every single monarch of England or Britain from that time to the present day.

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Matilda: Empress, Queen, Warrior

Published by Yale University Press in 2019
ISBN: 9780300227253 (hardback); 9780300251470 (paperback)

Matilda was a daughter, wife, and mother. But she was also empress, heir to the English crown—the first woman ever to hold the position—and an able military general.

Excerpts from reviews of Matilda

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Louis: the French prince who invaded England

Published by Yale University Press in 2016
ISBN: 9780300217452

In 1215 a group of English barons, dissatisfied with the weak and despicable King John, decided that they needed a new monarch. They wanted a strong, experienced man, of royal blood, and they found him on the other side of the Channel: astonishingly, the most attractive candidate for the crown of England was Louis, eldest son and heir of the king of France. In this fascinating biography of England’s least-known “king”- and the first to be written in English – Catherine Hanley explores the life and times of “Louis the Lion” before, during, and beyond his quest for the English throne. She illuminates the national and international context of his 1216 invasion, and explains why and how after sixteen fruitless months he failed to make himself King Louis I of England. Hanley also explores Louis’s subsequent reign over France until his untimely death on the Albigensian Crusade. Published eight centuries after the creation of Magna Carta and on the 800th anniversary of Louis’s proclamation as king, this fascinating story is a colorful tale of national culture, power, and politics that brings a long-forgotten life out of the shadows of history.

Excerpts from reviews of Louis

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War and Combat 1150-1270: The Evidence from Old French Literature

Published by Boydell and Brewer in 2003.
ISBN: 9780859917810

War and Combat is an academic book which takes an interdisciplinary look at warfare in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries.

War and combat were significant factors in the lives of all conditions of people during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries; thousands of men, women and children prepared for, engaged in and suffered from the consequences of almost endemic armed conflict. However, while war and combat feature prominently in many of the forms of literature written at the time, the theme of warfare in some types of narrative source remains a relatively under-studied area. This book offers an investigation of the depiction of warfare in contemporary writings, in both fictional narratives and factual accounts, aiming to bridge the gap between the disciplines of literature and military history.

Excerpts from reviews of War and Combat

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Partonopeus de Blois

An Electronic Edition

Prepared by: Penny Eley, Penny Simons, Mario Longtin, Catherine Hanley, Philip Shaw

Partonopeus de Blois is a medieval French verse romance, composed in the last third of the twelfth century. It tells of how the young hero, Partonopeus, is transported to a mysterious city where he encounters the heroine Melior. He becomes her lover without ever seeing her, but eventually breaks the taboo on bringing a light into her bedchamber and is banished by her. After various adventures, he is forgiven, wins her hand in marriage at a three-day tournament, and becomes emperor of Byzantium. A continuation then tells the story of the hero’s former squire, Anselot, and of an unsuccessful invasion by Partonopeus’s former love-rival, the sultan of Persia.

https://www.dhi.ac.uk/projects/partonopeus/

I have also published academic articles in a variety of peer-reviewed journals in the UK, France and the USA. My most recent activity in this area was writing several entries for the Oxford Encyclopaedia of Medieval Warfare and Military Technology.

It’s a combination that is probably not readily apparent, but I also used to have a sideline writing about cricket, having had articles published in Wisden Cricketers’ Almanack, the Australian Wisden Cricketers’ Almanack, Wisden Cricket Monthly, the websites wisden.com and wisdenindia.com, and Inside Cricket (an Australian cricket magazine). I loved it, and I’m pleased to say that while I was involved in cricket writing, I was able to pursue a lifelong interest, and to meet a number of utterly charming sports journalists (that’s not a phrase you hear often!), players and ex-players.