The Plantagenets : the kings who made England

I grabbed this book from the library because I wanted a crash course in Plantagenet history. The Plantagenets ruled England for over 300 years, beginning with Henry II in 1154, and this book covers most of that time. Henry II's mother was Empress Matilda, the granddaughter of William the Conqueror.

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I thought it was interesting that the family name came from Henry II's father Geoffrey, who liked to wear the yellow Planta Genista blossoms in his hair, leading to the nickname Geoffrey Plantagenet.

This book was well-researched and went into great detail on the major players of the Plantagenet dynasty. Some parts I skimmed over, while others sections I spent a lot of time on. I enjoyed Empress Matilda's story of how she battled her cousin Stephen of Blois for control of England. While she was never officially crowned queen, she succeeded in getting her son on the throne as the first Plantagenet king. Eleanor of Aquitaine was another fascinating woman who made a huge impact on Europe during her long life. And I can't forget the Edward II/Isabella of France/Piers Gaveston/Hugh Despenser drama! It was drama to rival the Tudors.

This book paints a vivid portrait of English royals between the Norman invasion and the Tudor takeover. (Though, it did not go as far as Richard III; he needs his own book!) Recommended for anyone interested in an easy to read history of this time period.

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Dan Jones did an amazing job on this book. Would recommend to anyone who would want to learn more about the Plantagenets.

The book at its heart is just a great story. Jones accomplishes this partly by choosing the right time to start and to end. It's also handy that the Plantagenets have a strong self-referential streak, or maybe that's due to the skill of the author as well. There is a lot of interesting detail,

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especially for someone like me who knew the broad outlines only, especially of the Edwards. The side characters, the would-be kings, and the rivals and allies all have something to offer to the story as well.

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Medieval times a we revere it in popular culture pretty much coincides with the reign of the Plantagenet kings of England, beginning with Henry II and ending when Henry of Bolingbrook, a Lancaster cousin to King Richard II, usurped the throne. The Plantagenets offered up some strong rulers with

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enduring legacy: Henry II, his son, Richard I (The Lionhearted), Edward I (Hammer of the Scots), and Edward III, who revolutionized warfare, sparking the 100 Years War with France. There were also miserable failures, John (of whom the Magna Carta was first imposed), Edward II, and Richard II. Feudalism was redefined under their reign, and contention with the nobility and church was commonplace (Thomas Becket the most notable ecclesiastical casualty of this period). There were also crusades, and, perhaps most intriguing (especially if you enjoy the game Crusader Kings), attempts to retain possessions in France, including political maneuvering and homage to various French kings (eventually leading to the 100 Years War). Scottish nationalism was ultimately successful under Robert the Bruce, but not until after Edward I had given way to his weak son.

Dan Jones does a fine job covering all of the major events in each monarch's reign. I would have liked to have seen a little more on the effect each monarch had on day to day life...but common folk were the ultimate pawns in this period. Fans of A Game of Thrones will find something to like here...real life contention and intrigue.

Regarding the title of the book. the "Queems" should probably be singular as the most significant queen, Henry II's darling wife, Eleanor of Aquitaine, was probably the only queen of this period to be supported with an armed host. In comparison, the other queens were less pro-active, but in some cases, their deaths caused adverse reaction with their (in)famous husbands.

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This was a well-written and engaging history. I only wish the author had given a little more attention to the fascinating women of the period.

This is a very big book and it holds: eight generations of Kings and Queens from 1120 to 1399; a period choc full of events, history and change. It says much for Dan Jones’ ability to marshal his facts and theories and his ability to spin a compelling (true) story that I flew threw the pages.

I

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knew the names, I had read many of the stories; but much of what I knew came from historical fiction, and I wanted a book that would help me to put things in the right order and fill in the gaps. This was definitely the right book for the job.

The narrative opens in the year 1120, with a drunken party aboard The White Ship. Amongst those present was William the Aetherling, grandson of William the Conqueror and the only legitimate son of Henry 1st. It had been intended that the ship would race from France to to England, but drunkenness had spread to the crew and the ship hit a rock and was wrecked. It was a catastrophe, there were few survivors, and William the Aetherling was not among them.

Henry I named his daughter, Matilda, as his heir, and took care to marry her to a strong and strategically positioned consort, Geoffrey of Anjou. But when the King died many of England’s nobles were unwilling to accept a Queen Regnant, making it easy for Matilda’s cousin Stephan of Blois, one of the few survivors of The White Ship, to seize the crown while Matilda was overseas, tied to her husband’s lands, awaiting the birth of a child.

That began a long, dark and difficult period of English history that would be known as The Anarchy; a civil war with the country divided between supporters of two claimants to the throne. That conflict was only ended when, after the death of his only son, Stephen agreed to name Matilda and Geoffrey’s son, Henry as his heir.

He, as Henry II, would be England’s first Plantagenet King; inheriting the name from his father, Geoffrey, on whom it had been bestowed because he habitually wore a spring of yellow broom blossom (planta genista).

That story – from the sinking of the white ship to the accession of Henry II – is told ‘Age of Shipwreck’, the first of seven acts. It’s full of drama and colour, as are the six acts that follow.

‘Age of Empire’ charts Henry’s conquests, his troubled – and ultimately catastrophic – relationship with Thomas a Becket, and his struggles with his wife – Eleanor of Aquitaine – and their troublesome children who history would label the ‘Devil’s Brood’. And it continues with the story of Richard the Lionheart, who came to the throne in the age of the crusades and would spend his life defending and expanding the empire he inherited from his father. An empire that his youngest brother, King John, would lose.

After that ‘Age of Opposition’ follows the conflicts that led to those loses, the conflicts with King John’s nobles and churchmen that led to history’s most famous failed peace treaty – ‘Magna Carta’ It continues into the story of John’s son, Henry III, a very different King who would also be opposed by his nobles, chief among them Simon de Monfort.

The next inheritor of the throne – Edward I – changed things, casting himself as the inheritor of King Arthur; the story of his reign, his quest to steady his kingdom and rebuild an empire, and to establish the rights and obligations of Kings is told in the ‘Age of Arthur’.

‘Age of Violence’ tells of how all of that would be undone by his son – the notorious King Edward II – who seemingly failed to understand any of those obligations or any of the consequences of his actions, playing favourite with Piers Gaveston and Hugh Despenser, and setting into motion a chain of consequence that would send his wife, Queen Isabella, into the arms of rebel Roger Mortimer, and would end with them putting his son, the young Edward III on the throne in his place, as a puppet king.

The story of how Edward III broke free, brought stability to England and re-established the country as a military power with victories on land and at sea at the start of what would become The Hundred Years War is told in ‘Age of Glory’. It tells of his sons, who included his heir Edward, The Black Prince, and John of Gaunt.

The Black Prince’s early death signalled a change in England’s fortunes. The final act – ‘Age of Revolution’ charts that decline, the accession of the Black Prince’s son, Richard II, a boy King thrown into a difficult situation without any real understanding of his rights and responsibilities. That was disastrous, and his story would end when he was usurped by his cousin, Henry Bolingbroke.

That’s where this story ends. Not with the last Plantagenet King, but with a significant shift. You might say that it was the end of the beginning or the beginning of the end for The Plantagenets. It was the right place to break the story; good though it was this book was long enough.

There were so many stories, all well told, with enough colour and detail to make them live. I was left with some striking images, and their was more than enough to keep my intention through the few quieter period.

The author stated that his intention was to track how the government and the role of monarchy changed over the years, and he did that very well indeed. I was fascinated to learn much more that I’d known before about Magna Carta and to learn about acts and treaties and settlements I’d known little or nothing about. That may sound dry but it really isn’t; it grows quite naturally out of the changes and conflicts of the human drama that was being told.

But the human story was what I missed in this book. Even on a book this long you can’t have everything, but I wish there had been a little more room for many of England’s Queens and to understand a little more of what made England’s Kings the men that they were.

I could see that the author had favourites, and that there were other he had little time for. That’s understandable, but I was disappointed that there were times when there was room for different interpretation of events that wasn’t mentioned. I accept that space was a factor, but a little space could – should – have been made to allow that there are shades of grey, not just black and white.

That leave me a little worried about picking up the story in ‘The Hollow Crown’ – because their are definitely different views to be taken on the War of the Roses. But I will because there were so many more things about this book that I did appreciate.

I took what I wanted from this book; I’ve filled gaps and I have my Kings in order; it’s a starting point not an end, and it has me enthused about reading more to fill out the human stories and build my understanding of the history.

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Not boring if read in small bits as I did. Very readable--nonfiction but style mimicked that of historical fiction. I learned the general trajectory and importance of the Plantagenet dynasty to the development of England; they began with the sinking of the "White Ship" and included the reigns of

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Henry I through Richard II, a total of several centuries. Now I have a sketchy idea in my mind; although I can't remember every fact, I did learn some things. The name was taken from the Latin term for the common broom plant and used as royal badges. Edward III most impressed me and I got a handle on the Hundred Years' War and its importance to European history. The book destroyed some myths.

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Very interesting, and well-told.

I never got history, lists of Kings and Queens and their battles left me cold. Watching the White Queen on the TV I realised how little I actually knew about our countries history. So got this book. What a readable revelation! Began to see and understand our path towards this modern Britain in a

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totally new light.
Kingship was all about power broking, doing deals with all and sundry to keep you as top dog. Selling your daughters off to make new alliances only to renege and go to war afterwards. Ever watchful who was around to challenge your supremacy, watching your trusted friends you needed to keep hold of your power base only to sell them short or betray them. Rough, tough and evil. As long as you had control you could take whatever you fancy and hold as your own. So long as there was no challenger.

Of course you had to call in your favours and require your supporters to fight for your cause. If you won you had land, plunder and daughters to dispose off, if you lost you had to retrench and recover your power base. Your claim to the monarchy was only as good as the band of supporters. There were always rivals around trying to muster up support to challenge your power base, if you were not able to kill them off.

How you chose to flaunt your access to the wealth of the land depended on your own view of kingship. This view was under constant threat from the band of supporters you had to rely on. They were keen to limit the wilder extremes of your profligacy, without exposing themselves individually, to any retribution. Maybe it is just the judgement of hindsight but so many of the monarch's were imbecilic in how they reigned. The few notable exceptions rising above the generality that absolute power corrupts absolutely. Hindsight interpretations are offered a plenty to the whys and possible wherefores for so many of the incredibly stupid actions. But we were not there so could not understand the realities of day, just this gentle guide suggesting how it might have been. Slowly over reigns the law of the land became modified heading towards the balance between the monarch and the commoners we have now. All fascinating stuff. Told so entertainingly, so free of academic correctness. Scooping up all the handed down fables and legend we have grown up with and putting them into their correct context. I learnt so much about my countries history, eagerly turning the pages, all the while without realising it.

During the course of this long book, despite the gentle reminders of sequence, from time to time I lost track, of who succeeded who and how they were related. But it did not matter, I wasnt taking any exam. Certainly the succession of families that came and went in and out of favour, only to return, only to be disposed off, all got baffling. Some were minor insignificant players, others had leading significance over several reigns before they too eventually fell foul of regal wrath. My fault, I should have paid more attention, the players were all given their thumbnail histories to relate them to their place in the unfolding tale.

The more I read there more I wanted to know. How on earth did the common people live and survive the constant pillaging, taxing, call to arms, the constant switching of loyalties. How were the so frequent wars carried out, how were the armies mustered and controlled? Which of the important emergent families survived and do their stately homes still survive. How did the monarch actually operate on a day by day basis to contain and control his kingdom, several hints but so short on detail.

But surely that is the sign of a good history book, leaving you excited and eager to find out more?

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This book explains in a simple and straightforward manner the history of England during the Plantagenet Period. The discussion is very fluid and informative. Although all important events were covered, some should have been explained more lengthily.

Very well put together volume. The section on Edward I is eye opening, seeing as Hollywood has vilified him in movies like Braveheart. Detailed and easy to read. The author comes across as unbiased. Looking forward to the next book in the chapter. This is a world that took no prisoners. You lived

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you died and when you did die you could only hope it would not be like everyone else. NO room for mistakes. It was a harsh world.

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Moving history, while listening it was sometimes difficult to remember all the relationships between the families. Well worth listening/reading considering the drama and intrigue.

A drunken outing, a ship sinks and a future kiing is dead leaving the country without a clear successor. The result? Twenty years of Civil War. This is how this well written well researched book begins. It then takes us through 250 years of Plntagenet rule. The good, not too much of that, the bad,

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alot of that, and the ugly. So glad I did not live in the Middle ages. I knew quite a bit of this history going in, but I have always had a fascination with Eleanor of Aquitaine, queen twice, the mother of two Kings, and the women that led her sons in a revolt against her husband. Of course she was imprisoned in various castles for many years, but eventually she once again became a politcal force. She lives into her seventies.

Many names, man battles, countries won, countries lost. Powerful people, imprisoned people, people tortured, drawn and quartered. Not good to be near the top or a threat. Does show the politics of the time, the beginnings of the legal system and the Magna Carta, which few Kings adhered to, or only when they were forced too. The Crusades, the expense of these and the constant wars and battles. Family power struggles, the Black Death, and the sad death of a princess.

A very comprehensive, but readable tone of a family that retained power for 250 years. One thing, among many, things I did not know, and found shocking, concerned the country under the rule of Edward II. His treatment of the Jews, and the fact that he made them wear yellow cloth badges on their clothes so they could be identifiable. They were later dispelled from the country. So do we infer that Hitler read history, or was it a fluke that Hitler picked the same color and same means of identification. Chilling!

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"Fair cousin, since it pleases you, it pleases us well," said Richard. Then he formally surrendered himself to his cousin. He and Salisbury were given two very poor horses to ride, and they set out with Bolingbroke, under armed guard, for Chester. The castle was no longer the military stronghold of

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a paranoid king but his prison.

The Plantagenets is a wonderful narrative history, one which paints vividly the longest dynasty in English annals 1154-1399. The book opens with the maritime disaster which befell Henry I's heir and it ends 250 years later in 1399 with Richard II being removed from office. All the requisite crowns are honored: Henry II (my favorite) Richard I, John, Henry III, Edward I, Edward II, Edward III, Richard II. There are countless overseas wars, Barons' revolts, the Magna Carta, Excommunications, Crusades, ransoms, child brides, taxes, defaults, plagues, peasants going apeshit, Arthurian cults, and bedroom revolutions: how many times can spouses and children lift the sword to depose a faltering Crown?

My chief complaint remains the lack of footnotes. There is also a vaccuum concerning the historical perspective and the rising and falling tides of such.

There are a handful of films indispensable to this period, this list sadly doesn't include Becket which is marvelous cinema but rubbish history.

1) Lion In Winter

2) Edward II - Tilda Swinton and a legion of penises.

3) History Boys - well, because.

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This is the story of eight English kings during the colorful High Middle Ages. It's a good introduction, but limited by the lengh of time covered, necessitating brief coverage of many topics, despite a lengthy book. The Plantagenents could be very capable, the likes of Henry II and Edward III are

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among England's greatest rules. The worst kings are also interesting, Edward II and Richard II offer a distinct lesson on how to behave badly. Richard II ended the lineage and is credited with starting the War of the Roses, but his father the Black Prince was a capable and powerful leader who unfortunately died too young, one wonders how history would have been different had he ruled - no Tudors. I now have a better sense of the English kings from this period and hope to read some individual biographies. The 12th century in particular was a golden renaissance, the epitome of "middle ages".

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Marvelous narrative history with everything you could want in a story: romance, lust, betrayal, conflict, odd personalities, heroes, and scoundrels.

As familiar as the story might be of the relationship between Beckett and Henry II, it was a reminder to me how little has changed: the church still

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battles the secular for primacy.

I was quite unfamiliar with the reign of Edward I, especially his campaign against the Welsh and the use of the Arthruian legends to diminish the value of the traditional Welsh stories. He stitched the Arthurian legends into Plantagenet family lore. The campaigns against the Welsh were innovative. Edward insisted that roads be widened to 200 feet and trees and gullies and ditches be flattened so as to prevent attacks by the Welsh who were used to harassing his baggage trains and army with guerrilla tactics. He surrounded the Welsh major cities with rings of castles, many of which still stand and are remarkable in that they were designed for offensive as well as defensive use having abandoned the traditional keep for concentric towers connected by rings of walls and no central strong point. (Lots of pictures of these marvelous constructions on the Internet.) He also invented the arrow slits that gave excellent fields of fire to those inside at very little risk to the archer. Castles were used to enclose towns as well making them economic centers. All this was very expensive and this put Edward into an uncomfortable bargaining position so Parliament gained considerable power during his reign.

I certainly would not have wished to be an earl or duke or whatever during the reign of Edward II. Getting on the wrong side of whomever was in power, Isabelle or Edward meant you would run the risk of not just having your head chopped of, but having genitals removed with a bread knife, entrails cut out, dragged by multiple horses, quartered, and on and on. To the applause of crowds.

Richard II, who most likely had some kind of personality disorder, struck me as having uncanny similarities to Trump. He was paranoid, required constant obsequious gestures from his subordinates, brooked no criticism, and when backed into a corner could become quite dangerous, lopping off heads with regular abandon. Watching Pence the other night (or, as George Will called him, the oleaginous sycophant) lead off with servile comments about our dear leader, just made the comparison to Richard II (who was deposed) more blatant.

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At first I was all like, "Man, the Plantagenets is super long and detailed, I will never get through this book." Then I was all like, "Man, this book is _super detailed_, this is great!" And then I was, "I am bummed because I finished the Plantagenets, does Dan Jones have any other books?" It turns

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out he does!

The Plantagenets is an immensely readable yet still dense history of the British Royal Family from 1135 to 1399 with the White Ship disaster of 1120, Henry I dying and the country falling into the Anarchy as Empress Matilda and King Stephen of Blois go to war. And from there we are off to the races following the wax and wane of the Plantagenets from the greatest of them (Henry II, Edward III, the Black Prince) to the very worst (Edward II, Richard II) and everyone in between. There is blood and treachery and war and murder and regicide and treason and big pitched battles and Scots and crazed Welshmen fighting in swamps and drama.

If you're super interested in the 800th year anniversary of the Magna Carta and its impacts to history, this book goes into pretty good detail.

Loved it, would recommend it. A fine book of history. Totally worth the high ratings it has on Goodreads.

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This is a sweeping history of the kings who ruled England and initially Normandy, but also varying other areas of what is now France from about 1120 to 1400. It is easily readable narrative written about the kings personally and to a lesser extent the development of state power.
I have read a number

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of books covering various aspects of this period over the years, including the even more sweeping Foundation by Peter Ackroyd (English history through to Henry VII) and the excellent, but detailed, Thomas Becket: murder and the making of a saint.
This book is a very readable history, but because of the long time period covered, it is necessarily brief at times, leaving me wanting to read more details about various periods (and the book does provide a bibliography to direct reading). However, some periods (Henry III’s 56 year reign) did feel as if they were rushed, and the turn of the wheel of fortune was sometimes stated, but not fully explained.

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This is an excellent account England’s Plantagenet kings from Henry II–Richard II.

The book is written to appeal to a general audience, therefore it doesn’t read like a stuffy textbook, or anything along the lines of dry academic facts.

Even though I was familiar with a large percentage of the

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info, the author presents his work in such a way that it remains engaging throughout.

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I dearly love to read historical fiction that gives you an insight into the past. Dan Jones has done a brilliant job of weaving a tapestry out of the lives of the first dynasty of the English Realm. Often given second place to the Tudor monarchs, the Plantagenet reign was wrought with intrigue,

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both ironclad and flaky leaderships, rivalry and a constant battle to keep the crown. Some of histories most infamous characters lived during the Plantagenet reign. This era also characterised English supremacy on the battlefield at the cost of financial security at home.

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Interesting to read, wasn't as dry as other history books.