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She-Wolves: England's Early Queens

She-Wolves: England's Early Queens

★ 8.0/10•2012•14+•Documentary
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Historian Dr Helen Castor explores the lives of seven English queens who challenged male power, the fierce reactions they provoked and whether the term 'she-wolves' was deserved.

Lucy Swingler · Director

Helen Castor · Writer

StatusEnded
LanguageEN
First Air DateMar 7, 2012

Episodes

Episode 1 - Matilda and EleanorE160m

Matilda and Eleanor

800 years ago, Matilda came within a hair's breadth of being the first woman to be crowned queen of England in her own right. Castor explores how Matilda reached this point and why her bid for the throne ultimately failed. Her daughter-in-law Eleanor of Aquitaine was an equally formidable woman. Despite being remembered as the queen of courtly love, in reality during her long life she divorced one king and married another, only to lead a rebellion against him. She only finally achieved the power she craved in her seventies.

Mar 7, 2012

Episode 2 - Isabella and MargaretE260m

Isabella and Margaret

In 1308 a 12-year-old girl, Isabella of France, became queen of England when she married the English king. A century later another young French girl, Margaret of Anjou, followed in her footsteps. Both these women were thrust into a violent and dysfunctional England and both felt driven to take control of the kingdom themselves. Isabella would be accused of murder and Margaret of destructive ambition - it was Margaret who Shakespeare named the She Wolf. But as historian Helen Castor reveals, their self-assertion that would have seemed natural in a man was deemed unnatural, even monstrous in a woman.

Mar 14, 2012

Episode 3 - Jane, Mary and ElizabethE360m

Jane, Mary and Elizabeth

Helen Castor looks at what happened when England was faced not just with inadequate kings, but no kings at all. In 1553, for the first time in English history all the contenders for the crown were female. In the lives of these three Tudor queens - Jane, Mary and Elizabeth - she explores how each woman struggled in turn with wearing a crown that was made for a male head. Elizabeth I seemed to show that not only could a woman rule, but could do so gloriously.

Mar 21, 2012

Actors

Helen Castor

Helen Castor

Self - Presenter

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