Kingship and Masculinity in Late Medieval England

the field of medieval history has produced several hundred, if not thousands of volumes on kingship in the Middle Ages. Students of medieval studies are well acquainted with much of this literature, particularly that sparked by Ernst Kantorowicz' s historiographical game changer, The King's Two Bodies (1957). Katherine Lewis's innovative study of the monarchy and masculinity of Henry V (r.1413-22) and Henry VI (r.1422-61, 1470-1) of England entitled Kingship and Masculinity in Late Medieval England deserves a place on the mandatory reading list for students of both medieval kingship and medieval gender. Lewis fills a large lacuna in the study of masculinity and kings. Indeed, the field of medieval gender studies has been slow to offer in-depth examinations of the gendered politics and gendered bodies of medieval men. Women' s historians, like Lois Huneycutt, Theresa Earenfight, and Elena Woodacre have done an excellent job at filling the gaps in our knowledge of women as rulers, especially in the last fifteen years. The masculine identity of kings, however, has not been examined in monograph-length studies, at least until Christopher Fletcher's Richard II (2008). Lewis follows in the same path. As she states, " Studying a king in terms of gender identity becomes a means of enlightening not only our understanding of politics, but also of ideologies of masculinity as they pertained much more widely within late fourteenth-century English society " (11). After an introduction to the historiography and sources used in her argument (chapters 1 and 2), Lewis divides her study into two parts: the first is devoted to Henry V, the second to his son and heir, Henry VI. As a disclaimer, Lewis asserts that her work is not a comprehensive examination of the reigns of Henry V or Henry VI, nor does it offer new documentary evidence. Instead, Lewis is doing truly revisionist work. Henry V was viewed as a successful king, while his  BOOK REVIEWS