Crinoline history tends to focus on grandes dames Elizabeth I and Victoria, both of whom reigned in what have been termed golden ages of Britain.

However, there were earlier female contenders for the thrones of Europe, and this is the theme of She Wolves (Faber, £20), Helen Castor's admirable romp through medieval times. She has chosen four remarkable women who came near to the crown — Matilda, granddaughter of William the Conqueror, Eleanor of Aquitane, Isabella of France and Margaret of Anjou — to show the turbulent path to the throne at a time when monarchy beyond kingship appeared unthinkable; a “monstrous regiment”, as the Protestant firebrand John Knox observed.

Castor's elegant writing — as revealed in her wonderful previous book Blood and Roses about the 15th-century Paston family — is steeped in the landscape of the period.

She sets off by describing the death of Henry VIII's son — “swollen and disfigured by disease” — leaving no natural heir. The arduous test that brought Elizabeth to the throne had origins in the past; thus a beautiful book about the “she wolves" which will captivate an audience identifying with female ascension in a whirlpool of courtly intrigue.