She-Wolves tells the fascinating story of how royal power came to lie in female hands for the first time under the English Tudor queens, and of the four women who came before them who, whilst never reigning monarchs, held great power.
When Edward VI (Henry VIII's son) died in 1553, all the contenders for the crown were female.
But female rule in England also had a past. Four hundred years before Edward's death, Matilda, daughter of Henry I and granddaughter of William the Conquerer, came tantalisingly close. And between the 12th and the 15th centuries, three more exceptional women – Eleanor of Aquitaine, Isabella of France, and Margaret of Anjou – could have ruled. This is a tale of vivid humanity.