Although less famous than their Tudor cousins, the “unnaturally cruel” and powerful Plantagenets were the longest-reigning English royal dynasty, ruling for more than two centuries, from Henry II’s ascendance in 1154 after a violent civil war to Richard II’s deposition at the hands of his cousin Henry Bolingbroke in 1399. The great-grandson of William the Conqueror, Henry II—cunning, dynamic, and “a great legalist”—ruled over England and great swaths of France, but was labeled a “pariah” for his involvement in Archbishop Thomas Becket’s murder and was betrayed by his redoubtable wife, Eleanor of Aquitaine, and their sons. One of the dynasty’s worst kings was Henry II’s youngest son, John—“weak, indecisive, and mean-spirited”—who killed his nephew, a hapless prisoner, with his own hands in a drunken rage, lost Normandy to France, and was forced to guarantee his barons’ rights through the Magna Carta. By contrast, John’s great-great-grandson, Edward III, considered the greatest Plantagenet, was a new Arthur who “bonded England’s aristocracy together in the common purpose of war,” revived the knight’s code of chivalry, and ushered in English as the accepted language. Blood-soaked medieval England springs to vivid life in Jones’s (Summer of Blood) highly readable, authoritative, and assertive history—already a #1 bestseller in the U.K. 6 maps. Agent: Georgina Capel, Capel & Land (U.K.). (Apr. 22)
The Plantagenets: The Warrior Kings and Queens Who Made England
The Plantagenets: The Warrior Kings and Queens Who Made England
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Overview
The first Plantagenet king inherited a blood-soaked kingdom from the Normans and transformed it into an empire stretched at its peak from Scotland to Jerusalem. In this epic history, Dan Jones vividly resurrects this fierce and seductive royal dynasty and its mythic world. We meet the captivating Eleanor of Aquitaine, twice queen and the most famous woman in Christendom; her son, Richard the Lionheart, who fought Saladin in the Third Crusade; and King John, a tyrant who was forced to sign Magna Carta, which formed the basis of our own Bill of Rights. This is the era of chivalry, of Robin Hood and the Knights Templar, the Black Death, the founding of Parliament, the Black Prince, and the Hundred Year's War. It will appeal as much to readers of Tudor history as to fans of Game of Thrones.
Editorial Reviews
The Plantagenets played a defining part in shaping the nation of England, and Dan Jones tells their fascinating story with wit, verve, and vivid insight. This is exhilarating history—a fresh and gloriously compelling portrait of a brilliant, brutal, and bloody-minded dynasty.”
This is history at its most epic and thrilling. I would defy anyone not to be right royally entertained by it.”
Dan Jones’ The Plantagenets is outstanding. Majestic in its sweep, compelling in its storytelling, this is narrative history at its best. A thrilling dynastic history of royal intrigues, violent skullduggery, and brutal warfare across two centuries of British history.”
They may lack the glamour of the Tudors or the majesty of the Victorians, but in Jones’ latest book, the Plantagenets are just as essential to the foundation of modern Britain…Written with prose that keeps the reader captivated throughout accounts of the span of centuries and the not-always-glorious trials of kingship, this book is at all times approachable, academic, and entertaining.”
Jones has written a magnificently rich and glittering medieval pageant, guiding us into the distant world of the Plantagenets with confidence. This riveting history of an all-too-human ruling house amply confirms the arrival of a formidably gifted historian.”
Excellent…Colorful and imaginative…It is unapologetically about powerful people, their foibles, their passions, and their weaknesses…The Plantagenets is a wonderful gallop through English history in the traditional way. Powerful personalities, vivid descriptions of battles and tournaments, ladies in fine velvet, and knights in shining armor crowd the pages of this highly engaging narrative.”
Jones, a protégé of David Starkey, writes with his mentor’s erudition but also exhibits novelistic verve and sympathy…This is a great popular history, whether you are au fait with the machinations of medievalism or whether Magna Carta mystifies you…The Plantagenets is proof that contemporary history can engage with the medieval world with style, wit, and chutzpah. It is a long book at more than six hundred pages but remains engaging throughout.”
A dashing historian goes swift with a colorful chronicle of the kings who made England…Jones pulls the hectic centuries into a coherent whole.”
This action-packed narrative is, above all, a great story, filled with fighting, personality clashes, betrayal, and bouts of the famous Plantagenet rage…Jones is an impressive guide to this tumultuous scene…The Plantagenets succeeds in bringing an extraordinary family arrestingly to life.”
The Plantagenets offers a glaring contrast between their even balance of outstanding kings and outstandingly bad ones. This adds to the already exciting dynamics of a dramatic period, captured to great effect in Dan Jones’ big book on a big subject…He succeeds admirably. It is traditional narrative history at its best.”
Dan Jones’ epic portrait of the medieval royals is a timely reminder that things haven’t always been so rosy for those on the throne. The House of Plantagenet ruled England for more than two centuries, giving us eight generations of our best and worst kings and queens—and some bloody, brutal, and brilliant tales to match.”
Gripping storytelling and pin-sharp clarity…The Plantagenets is a satisfying as well as an enjoyable read. There is no need for added goblins in this real life Game of Thrones.”
This is an exciting period, and Jones describes it with verve. He has a keen appreciation of how power was seized and wielded by medieval monarchs and the way they manipulated history, religion, and symbolism in the service of kingship…Medieval history is enjoying its time in the sun again thanks to some excellent writers. Heaven be praised for that.”
Entertaining and informative…Jones cuts through these myths effectively, marshaling primary sources to introduce the reader to the actual men who wore the English crown…Jones’ work benefits from his colorful and engaging style…He has produced an absorbing narrative that will help ensure that the Plantagenet story remains ‘stamped on the English imagination’ for another generation.”
Praise for The Plantagenets
“Like the medieval chroniclers he quarries for juicy anecdotes, Jones has opted for a bold narrative approach anchored firmly upon the personalities of the monarchs themselves yet deftly marshaling a vast supporting cast of counts, dukes, and bishops. . . . Fast-paced and accessible, The Plantagenets is old-fashioned storytelling and will be particularly appreciated by those who like their history red in tooth and claw. Mr. Jones tackles his subject with obvious relish.”
—The Wall Street Journal
“Delicious . . . Jones has produced a rollicking, compelling book produced a rollicking, compelling book about a rollicking, compelling dynasty, one that makes the Tudors who followed them a century later look like ginger pussycats. . . . The Plantagenets is told with the latest historical evidence and rich in detail and scene-setting. You can almost smell the sea salt as the White Ship sinks, and hear the screams of the tortured at the execution grounds at Tyburn.”
—USA Today
“Jones has brought the Plantagenets out of the shadows, revealing them in all their epic hero'sm and depravity. His is an engaging and readable account—itself an accomplishment given the gaps in medieval sources and a 300-year tableau—and yet researched with the exacting standards of an academician. The result is an enjoyable, often harrowing journey through a bloody, insecure era in which many of the underpinnings of English kingship and ¬Anglo-American constitutional thinking were formed.”
—The Washington Post
“Brilliant and entertaining . . . a set of fine vignettes relating dynastic life, death, war, peace, governance, and palace intrigues. The result is a history book that frequently reads like a novel and can be opened to any chapter.”
—Tampa Bay Times
“Blood-soaked medieval England springs to vivid life in Jones’s highly readable, authoritative, and assertive history.”
—Publishers Weekly
“They may lack the glamour of the Tudors or the majesty of the Victorians, but the Plantagenets are just as essential to the foundation of modern Britain. . . . The great battles against the Scots and French and the subjugation of the Welsh make for thrilling reading but so do the equally enthralling struggles over succession, the Magna Carta, and the Provisions of Oxford. . . . Written with prose that keeps the reader captivated throughout accounts of the span of centuries and the not-always-glorious trials of kingship, this book is at all times approachable, academic, and entertaining.”
—Booklist
“A novelistic historical account of the bloodline that ‘stamped their mark forever on the English imagination’ . . . Perhaps Jones’ regular column in the London Standard has given him a different slant on history; however he manages, it’s certainly to our benefit. . . . For enjoyable historical narratives, this book is a real winner.”
—Kirkus Reviews
“A riveting portrait of the royal lineage from Henry II through Richard II . . . Despite the density caused by any attempt to cram centuries of English history into one volume, Jones manages to create a work that is highly accessible to readers with only a basic knowledge of this era. . . . This is an excellent study of the period, both an overview and a series of character studies. It will be thoroughly enjoyed by Anglophile history buffs and others who love popular history or even historical fiction.”
—Library Journal
“Outstanding . . . Majestic in its sweep, compelling in its storytelling, this is narrative history at its best. A thrilling dynastic history of royal intrigues, violent skullduggery, and brutal warfare across two centuries of British history.”
—Simon Sebag Montefiore, author of Jerusalem: The Biography
“The Plantagenets played a defining part in shaping the nation of England, and Dan Jones tells their fascinating story with wit, verve, and vivid insight. This is exhilarating history—a fresh and gloriously compelling portrait of a brilliant, brutal, and bloody-minded dynasty.”
—Helen Castor, author of She-Wolves: The Women Who Ruled England before Elizabeth
“This is history at its most epic and thrilling. I would defy anyone not to be right royally entertained by it.”
—Tom Holland, author of Rubicon: The Triumph and Tragedy of the Roman Republic
“Jones has written a magnificently rich and glittering medieval pageant, guiding us into the distant world of the Plantagenets with confidence. This riveting history of an all-too-human ruling House amply confirms the arrival of a formidably gifted historian.”
—Sunday Telegraph
“Entertaining and informative . . . Jones has produced an absorbing narrative that will help ensure that the Plantagenet story remains ‘stamped on the English imagination’ for another generation.”
—Sunday Times (London)
“Traditional narrative history at its best.”
—The Spectator
“Jones, a protégé of David Starkey, writes with his mentor's erudition but also exhibits novelistic verve and sympathy. . . . This is a great popular history, whether you are au fait with the machinations of medievalism or whether Magna Carta mystifies you. . . . The Plantagenets is proof that contemporary history can engage with the medieval world with style, wit and chutzpah.”
—The Observer (London)
“This action-packed narrative is, above all, a great story, filled with fighting, personality clashes, betrayal and bouts of the famous Plantagenet rage. . . . Jones is an impressive guide to this tumultuous scene. . . . The Plantagenets succeeds in bringing an extraordinary family arrestingly to life.”
—Daily Telegraph
“An excellent book . . . The Plantagenets is a wonderful gallop through English history. Powerful personalities, vivid descriptions of battles and tournaments, ladies in fine velvet and knights in shining armour crowd the pages of this highly engaging narrative.”
—The Evening Standard
Jones’s thorough, complex, and extremely well-researched history examines many of the kings of England. Clive Chafer’s strong voice opens the narrative shortly before the ascension of the first Plantagenet, with the succession crisis that developed after the death of Henry I, and ends with the reign of Richard II, whose resignation sparked the Wars of the Roses. Chafer’s cadence is initially distracting but eventually fades into the background. Overall, he has a distinctive style that most listeners will either appreciate immediately or quickly come to do so. It is this effective style that helps him keep up the pace of this nearly 21-hour history and maintain listeners' interest throughout. J.L.K. © AudioFile 2013, Portland, Maine
A novelistic historical account of the bloodline that "stamped their mark forever on the English imagination." The first 250 years of the Plantagenets included numerous battles, the first half of the Hundred Years' War and some of the most colorful kings, from Henry II (the first king of England, as opposed to "of the English") and his "eaglets" to the three Edwards and Richard II. With a bit of background on the civil war between Stephen and Matilda that first gained the throne for Henry, Jones (Summer of Blood: The Peasants' Revolt of 1381, 2009) splits his tale in two at the usurpation of Richard II in 1399 by his first cousin Henry IV. This structure will whet readers' appetites for the second volume, which will cover the War of the Roses, the princes in the Tower and Richard III. Shakespeare and the movies have given most nonhistorians sufficient background to enjoy further tales of these kings and the little I-never-knew-that! moments that a good historian uses to tickle our fancies. For example, Edward I's Hundred Rolls was an even larger inventory than William the Conqueror's Domesday Book. After King John's death, his wife, Isabella of Angouleme, returned to France and married the man she was betrothed to when John swept her off her feet. There were so many battles and skirmishes with France and invasions back and forth, readers may wonder why the French and British even speak to each other anymore. Perhaps Jones' regular column in the London Standard has given him a different slant on history; however he manages, it's certainly to our benefit. Historians may question a few dates and events, but for enjoyable historical narratives, this book is a real winner.
Product Details
| BN ID: | 2940159489692 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Penguin Random House |
| Publication date: | 01/16/2024 |
| Edition description: | Unabridged |
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