The Restless Kings: Henry II, His Sons and the Wars for the Plantagenet Crown

by Nick Barratt

Overview

Longlisted for the HWA Non-Fiction Prize 2019

'A vivid and humane study of the Plantagenets' diabolical and devious first family - a real joy to read.' Dan Jones, author of The Plantagenets
In The Restless Kings Nick Barratt presents the tumultuous struggle for supremacy between the first Plantagenet king, Henry II, and his four sons. This conflict tore apart the most powerful family in Western Europe and shaped the future of both Britain and France, with a significance which still resonates today.
Exploring the personalities and crises facing this extraordinary family, The Restless Kings brings to life some of the most remarkable, complex, flawed and brilliant monarchs ever to have sat on the English throne, and will challenge everything you thought you knew about the medieval world.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780571329120
Publisher:	Faber and Faber
Publication date:	09/04/2018
Sold by:	Bookwire
Format:	eBook
Pages:	416
Sales rank:	582,938
File size:	4 MB

About the Author

Professor Nick Barratt is an author, broadcaster and historian best known for his work on BBC's Who Do You Think You Are. He is an honorary associate professor of public history at the University of Nottingham, and Director of the University of London's Senate House Library, as well as a teaching fellow at the University of Dundee. His most recent publication, The Forgotten Spy, tells the story of his great uncle - Stalin's first mole in Whitehall. He has previously written on subjects as diverse as the story of Greater London and the Titanic.
Who Do You Think You Are. He is an honorary associate professor of public history at the University of Nottingham, and Associate Director, Collections and Engagement, at the University of London's Senate House Library as well as a teaching fellow at the University of Dundee. His most recent publication, The Forgotten Spy, tells the story of his great uncle - Stalin's first mole in Whitehall - and has previously written on subjects as diverse as the story of Greater London and the Titanic.

Read an Excerpt

There was an eagle painted, and four young ones of the eagle perched upon it, tearing at the parent with talons and beaks. When some of the King’s close friends asked him the meaning of the picture, he said, 'The four young ones of the eagle are my four sons, who will not cease persecuting me even unto death. And the youngest, whom I now embrace with such tender affection, will someday afflict me more grievously and more perilously than all the others.

Table of Contents

The Angevin and Capetian dynasties viii

Territories ruled by Henry II and his family xi

List of illustrations xiii

Preface xv

Introduction 1

1 The rise of the Angevins 17

2 The struggle for authority 59

3 A family at war 116

4 The loss of Normandy 179

5 The road to Runnymede 233

Further reading 297

Index 299

Editorial Reviews

Winter 2018

Delving into the tumultuous histories of the first three Plantagenet kings of England, Barratt (The Forgotten Spy) crafts a concise, riveting look at a family destroyed by ambition and the complexities of Anglo-Norman politics. Beginning with the dramatic events leading to the ascent of Henry II, great-grandson of William the Conqueror, Barratt illustrates how the Angevins—Henry II and his sons, Richard I and John—left a lasting imprint upon both Great Britain and France through war, loss, and administrative innovation. Struggling to hold his continental lands as well as his English kingdom, Henry II maintained a peripatetic court that necessitated the creation of a centralized bureaucracy, established the importance of the Chancery and Exchequer in British government, and provided the mechanisms necessary to finance armies and fortifications. Yet, his decision to divide his holdings among his contentious sons led to the fracturing of the family and a series of conflicts resulting in the eventual loss of the continental Angevin domains during John's notoriously disastrous reign. VERDICT A highly readable exploration of a strong-willed family who left an indelible mark on European history.—Sara Shreve, Newton, KS

Library Journal

11/19/2018
Medieval fiscal historian Barratt argues that in the 12th and early 13th centuries, the highly contentious British royal family oversaw the foundation for the British bureaucratic system, including the Magna Carta, which helped shape much of the modern Western world. During this period, Henry II and Eleanor of Aquitaine schemed with and against each other and their four surviving sons, Henry, Geoffrey, Richard the Lionheart, and the incompetent John. Henry’s long reign garners the most attention, with an especially clear account of his disastrous power struggle and falling-out with Thomas Becket, the archbishop of Canterbury; the resulting assertion of papal authority over the English crown remained until the 16th-century English Reformation. Barratt’s moniker of “restless” certainly fits, but the subtitle’s reference to kings neglects the significantly influential Plantagenet women noted in the text. Scholarly and well written, Barratt’s history serves up operatic action punctuated with wry comments. Between the bickering and bloodshed, Barratt’s focus on a remarkable royal branch, which used its fondness for familial warfare to make substantial continental acquisitions, yields a fascinating tale. (Jan.)

Publishers Weekly

"A solid political history of a royal family whose members were pugnacious, grasping, devious, and shortsighted."—Kirkus

From the Publisher

2018-10-22

A history of King Henry II (1133-1189) and his unpleasant royal sons.

A medieval king did not simply give orders. He was the first among equals, a baron whose land provided income to support his army and who had convinced other barons with their own land and armies that he was the most powerful. Being king was expensive and hard work, but there were always candidates. Crowned in 1154, Henry II ruled Britain and more French territory than the French king. Although called the Angevin Empire, writes broadcaster and historian Barratt (The Forgotten Spy: The Untold Story of Stalin's First British Mole, 2016, etc.), it was more like a commonwealth since French nobles preferred to rule on their own. Everything began well because Henry took kingship seriously, pacified his realm, and introduced reforms that have persisted to the present time. Then four of his sons reached adulthood and required attention. Henry appointed his eldest heir but gave him no responsibility. He gave lands and income to the others, who acquired more through marriage, but all remained unsatisfied. From the 1170s until well into the following century, the sons engaged in a relentless series of quarrels, wars, rebellions, reconciliations, and betrayals with their father and, then, after his death, with each other and several foreign powers. "What made the Angevin conflict so noteworthy was that Henry's entire family turned against him," writes Barratt, "and that so many other powers were dragged into the conflict as a result of interconnected geopolitical alliances." Matters did not improve when son John emerged as the sole survivor in 1199. Expensive, unpopular wars did not prevent the loss of most French territory, and rebellious British nobles forced him to sign the Magna Carta in 1215. Readers curious about how ordinary people lived in medieval times must look elsewhere, but this is a solid political history of a royal family whose members were pugnacious, grasping, devious, and shortsighted.

A good choice for scholars and students of the Plantagenets.

Kirkus Reviews