Author: Sherry Jones
First Published: May 2012
Publisher: Gallery Books
434 pages (paperback)
I’m much more acquainted with the Tudor time period when it comes to European history, but let’s face it: in a genre oversaturated with the Tudors, the premise of this story was too interesting to pass up — four sisters in the 13th century all became queens of different countries! It sounds totally fictional because hey, what are the chances of that happening? But it really happened! Combined with my fascination for historical royal fiction the past handful of months, and the fact that this book became the August book of my online book club, well, it’s inevitable I would eventually read it. Also, I had read Captive Queen by Alison Weir not too long ago, so it was kind of cool reading about Eleanor of Aquitaine’s descendants (through King Henry III in this book).
Four Sisters, All Queens is about the four daughters of Beatrice of Savoy who lived in the 13th century in Provence. An ambitious woman, she planned for her daughters to have the most advantageous marriages possible. Her daughters are, in birth order, Marguerite who became Queen of France; Eleanore who became Queen of England; Sanchia who became Queen of Germany; and Beatrice who became Queen of Sicily. Beatrice of Savoy tried to instill in her daughters that family comes first and to help one another to bring their own family name of Savoy to great heights. Unfortunately, each of her daughters experience a myriad of obstacles in their reigns (or during their journey to the crown. The youngest sisters did not become queens right away, but a long while after the two eldest). Like their mother, the daughters were highly ambitious themselves. The sisters often found themselves battling another sister for power, money, land and affection and learn that becoming a queen comes with many costs.
I really enjoyed this book! As someone with two sisters and no brothers, I am quite familiar with the way sisters can end up acting around one another. Of course, neither myself or my sisters are queens of anything (har har), so the characters in this book have much more serious and intense rivalries. I found the book very easy to read and get into, even though it started off a bit slowly, but it steadily builds momentum. Sometimes the names mixed me up but it’s not the author’s fault that there were so many Henrys and Edwards back then, haha. I particularly enjoyed the last 150 pages of the book, because that was when the youngest two sisters and their husbands started making claims to the thrones of Sicily and Germany (their husbands were, previously, brothers to the king of France and England, respectively — they didn’t start off as kings themselves). I’m not very familiar with this part of history, and I didn’t find the explanation of how they were able to just make a claim for those thrones (something about the pope picking the kings?) very clear, but I understood the gist of what was going on. The rivalries between the sisters were at their highest point at this part of the story, in my opinion, and I loved reading every word of it!
I feel the majority of the story focused more so on Marguerite and Eleanore. They are older than the two youngest by quite a number of years, so with a “head start” in their queening career, it is understandable that they have more story to tell. My favourite is actually Beatrice though. I loved her! She was the youngest sister and to me, she sort of felt like the underdog so I liked rooting for her. She also has a very memorable personality, being the spunkiest and most in-your-face Savoy girl. Sanchia had a rather small presence in comparison to her three sisters, but I really enjoyed her parts as well. I was a little disappointed by their endings though: the younger daughters’ endings were rather abrupt and seemed to come out of nowhere, and the older daughters’ seemed kind of anti-climatic.
Besides sisterly bonds and the trials and tribulations of being a queen, I also loved how the book explored how tough it is to be a woman in that period of time. The book did this by painting a wonderfully detailed portrait of each Savoy girl with their husband. They each had a unique relationship with their husbands, and each had their own way to try to take for themselves what power they could — some with more success than others. Beatrice is my favourite and I also felt like she had the most success with her husband as well. Some of the husbands came off as tyrants and some came off as incompetent rulers, but what I gathered was that you shouldn’t disregard the advice your queen gives you! These girls were, for the most part, pretty sharp.
If you enjoy historical fiction and want to take a trip far back in time, I definitely recommend Four Sisters, All Queens! Honestly, with how exciting these ladies’ lives were, I’m surprised there aren’t more books about them, as I would love to read more about them!
My Rating: 4/5
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