Elie Berger

Blanche of Castile, Queen and Regent of France, 1188-1252 Elie Berger

Blanca de Castilla was a Spanish princess who became the most powerful human being in France as Regent and Queen, from 1226 to 1252. From Élie Berger's, Histoire de Blanche de Castille, Reine de France (Paris, 1895), there can be no question that Blanche ruled France during a critical period of Capetian expansion, even imperialism. Berger's biography remains the best scholarly treatment of the manuscript sources, which include the Trésor des Chartes; manuscripts from provincial archives, Bibliothèque nationale, and Public Record Office (London); Annales monastici, the Chronica majora by Mathieu de Paris; the Monumenta Germaniæ, and especially the Recueil des historiens de France, comptes royaux, and collections of the Recueil des historiens de France

Élie Berger (1850-1925) was a doctor of letters, member of the École française de Rome, archivist in the Archives Nationales, professor of paleography in the École des chartes, and conservator in the Musée Condé. At various times Berger was a member of the Académie des inscriptions et belles-lettres, and the Comité des travaux historiques et scientifiques, Président of the Société de l'École des chartes, and Président of the Société de l'histoire de France.

This edition of Blanche of Castile, Queen and Regent of France, 1188-1252 is the best English translation of this greatest monograph on the Spanish-born monarch who changed the course of French history.

Translated by Dr. Frank H. Wallis