Quotes from Sharon Kay Penman

It puzzled Maud that her male relatives could not see this. Was it that men could not believe a woman might share their ambitions, their need for power? Eleanor saw herself as more than Henry's queen, mother of his children. First and foremost, she was Duchess of Aquitaine, never doubting that she could have ruled as well as any man and better than most.

More than men had died at Lincoln. It seemed to Stephen that reality was a casualty, too, for nothing made sense anymore. What was he doing here in the solar of Lincoln Castle, bleeding all over the Earl of Chester's wife?

To call it a "setback" is like calling the Expulsion from Eden a minor misunderstanding.

Hal and Richard show all the good will of Cain and Abel.

He would never be able to emulate Richard's last gesture of defiance--gallant, glorious, and quite mad.

De Mortimer was willing to wager his hopes for salvation that self-interest was the one drink no man refused, but he had never understood why most men must sweeten it so lavishly ere they could swallow it.

He believed that his superior intellect mattered more than his physical defects and saw no reason why he must defer to these fortunate young men with handsome faces and healthy bodies and empty heads.

Is it not a wondrous thing, to see your child born?" He nodded. "Indeed. But I'll tell you what is no less wondrous to me right now. That after a woman endures all this, why she is then willing to let any man ever again get within ten feet of her bed!

if a man is a fool to wed for love, he must be utterly daft to wed for lust. No one with sense would expect a candle to burn forever, so why should a flame kindled in bed?

Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof

He'd never seen one so vibrant, though, or so vividly compelling... those glowing green eyes sparkling with sunlight and curiosity and silent laughter, and when she glanced in Henry's direction, she held his gaze, a look that was both challenging and enigmatic... He was utterly certain that this was Eleanor of Aquitaine, and no less sure that the French King must be one of God's greatest fools.

Those who served both the Almighty and secular lords did their best to follow Jesus's teachings and render unto Caesar the things which were Caesar's, and unto God the things that were God's, all the while praying they'd never have to choose between the two.

Well, dearest, what would you tell a farmer who had an over-abundant harvest? To plant less, of course!... I am not complaining about the frequency of the planting, she said. I'd just rather not reap a crop every year.

when a man fell into a deep hole, it was usually a good idea to stop digging.

For whatever reasons—which had never interested him in his youth but which he sometimes pondered as an adult—the Angevin House had always taken Cain and Abel as role models.

The book is Brittany and the Angevins: Province and Empire, 1158–1203, by Judith A. Everard

But Lord Harry has a good heart. Moreover, he truly likes women. Most men do, lass, Ranulf pointed out in amusement, and was surprised when she shook her head again. No, my Lord. She contradicted him with an odd smile, one that was both cynical and sad. Most men like to lay with women.

Ned never argued with their father, he was unfailingly polite and then nonchalantly went his own way; whereas, he, Edmund, deferred dutifully to his father's authority and then found himself resenting both his parent's austere discipline and his own reluctance to rebel.

what an unfair advantage the dead had over the living, for there could be no rebuttal, no denial, nothing but the accusing silence of the grave.

Five years is a long time to grieve, Llewelyn said at last, and Davydd shook his head. Grief heals, he said. Guilt does not.

Yesterday I heard some of the castle servants talking about a funeral for one of the stable lads. He went skating last week on the pond in the village, but the ice was not thick enough and he drowned. I like to skate on the ice,too, Papa, have my own pair of bone skates. I could drown crossing the Channel as Uncle Robert fears... or I could drown back in Angers, if I was unlucky like that stable lad. Geoffrey's mouth twitched. God help me, he said, I've sired a lawyer!

How fragile life was, how fleeting their days on earth, and how fickle was Death, claiming the young as often as the old, the healthy as often as the ailing, cruelly stealing away a baby's first breath, a mother's fading heartbeat.

John, watching in dismay, saw his great chance slipping through his fingers, and he swung around to demand of his father, "Papa, does this mean Richard has bested you and Aquitaine is lost?" Eleanor winced, Geoffrey rolled his eyes, and Henry gave his youngest a look John had never gotten from him before. "My life would have been much more peaceful if I'd had only daughters," he snapped. "As for Aquitaine, it is yours if you can take it.

Memory is merciful, Joanna, more so than man. It fades past pain, yet holds bright the colors in recalled joy.