Product Review

An absorbing novel about one of history's least-known queens, Berengaria of Navarre. After marrying King Richard the Lionheart of England and accompanying him on the Third Crusade, she is faced with his indifference and the scorn of her imperious mother-in-law, Eleanor of Aquitaine. Her unpardonable fault: she has failed to produce an heir to the English throne. As Richard's wife, then widow, she struggles to make her way in a world dominated by men, and succeeds brilliantly. Her engrossing story carries the reader across the turbulent landscape of medieval Europe: from Spain to Sicily, Cyprus, the Holy Land, France and England. Rachel Bard has written eight nonfiction books. "Queen without a Country" is the first in her trilogy about medieval Plantagenet queens.