Blood Royal cover art

Blood Royal

Dynastic Politics in Medieval Europe

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Blood Royal

By: Robert Bartlett
Narrated by: Jonathan Cowley
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About this listen

Throughout medieval Europe, for hundreds of years, monarchy was the way that politics worked in most countries. This meant power was in the hands of a family - a dynasty; that politics was family politics; and political life was shaped by the births, marriages, and deaths of the ruling family. How did the dynastic system cope with female rule, or pretenders to the throne? How did dynasties use names, the numbering of rulers, and the visual display of heraldry to express their identity? And why did some royal families survive and thrive, while others did not?

Drawing on a rich and memorable body of sources, this engaging and original history of dynastic power in Latin Christendom and Byzantium explores the role played by family dynamics and family consciousness in the politics of the royal and imperial dynasties of Europe. From royal marriages and the birth of sons, to female sovereigns, mistresses and wicked uncles, Robert Bartlett makes enthralling sense of the complex web of internal rivalries and loyalties of the ruling dynasties and casts fresh light on an essential feature of the medieval world.

©2020 Robert Bartlett (P)2021 Tantor Europe Royalty Middle Ages

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All stars
Most relevant  
Good book, I like bartlet. but I wish someone had shown the narrator how to pronounce the Irish names, place names and titles. he absolutely butchers the language

decent

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Reader has good voice, but why didn't anyone help him with pronouncing all those names.

Pronunciation!

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Hello Audible; are you listening to your own productions? Do you have editors? Are they asleep?

This outstanding work which admirably highlights the vital importance of family in Medieval European politics is utterly ruined by the frequent shockingly bad pronunciation. I was moved to write this review towards the end by the mispronunciation of Doge (of Venice) /doʊdʒ/ or /doʊʒ/ as 'dodger'. As I listened to this work I went from mild irritation, to annoyance, to manic hilarity. I haven't looked it up but I do hope there was a Doge called Roger.

Seriously chaps, this problem seems to be getting worse. It reflects really rather badly on the reputation your company.

Outstanding work ruined by bad pronunciation

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Bartlett is a well-credited historian & normally v. Interesting but in this book ha has adopted an odd “bitty” structure which has ruled out any coherent overall messages & reads more like a long string of encyclopaedia entries. The narrator is awful and can barely read English except perhaps instructions for a washing machine. Easier to get through at 1.2x speed. Overall, cannot recommend.

Strange book - lousy narrator

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This is more a series of mostly amusing facts than a coherent narrative. It is very long, but never exhaustive.

The narrator is enthusiastic but hampered by his lack of foreign languages. Hugh Capet thus becomes Huw / Huck / Ook Capet / Capeh / Capay with pronunciation sometimes changing within the same paragraph. In fairness, Charlemagne is consistently mispronounced.

One damn anecdote after another

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The narrator has a nice voice but the way he performs this audiobook doesn’t work. He pronounces each word individually instead of letting the sound of a sentence flow naturally and even pauses in the middle of words (eg: bi-ology). I’ve rated the story 3 as I didn’t listen further than 5 minutes so can’t judge that aspect.

Awful narration

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Have been a member for a number of years and have mostly positive memories of the variety of books I’ve downloaded - this is my first review - the book is the most boring one - it is just mostly a list of marriages etc between royal families and the reader sounds as bored as I was

Don’t bother

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