Review
‘Dan Jones’s 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 skulduggery and brutal warfare across two centuries of British history.’ SIMON SEBAG MONTEFIORE, best-selling 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, best-selling author of She-Wolves
‘excellent….colourful 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 armour crowd the pages of this highly engaging narrative’ Evening Standard
‘gripping storytelling and pin-sharp clarity…there is plenty of arresting detail…The Plantagenets is a satisfying as well as an enjoyable read’ Literary Review
‘bloody, brutal and brilliant’ GQ magazine
‘action-packed narrative…a great story filled with fighting, personality clashes, betrayal and bouts of the famous Plantagenet rage…Jones is an impressively confident guide to this tumultuous scene…The Plantagenets succeeds in bringing an extraordinary family to life’ Daily Telegraph
Product Description
Eight generations of the greatest and worst kings and queens that this country has ever seen – from the White Ship to the Lionheart, bad King John to the Black Prince and John of Gaunt – this is the dynasty that invented England as we still know it today – great history to appeal to readers of Ken Follet, Bernard Cornwell, Tom Holland
Please note that the family trees are best viewed on a tablet.
This riveting new book explores the lives of eight generations of the greatest – and worst – royal dynasty this country has ever seen. They were the Plantagenets, and their story is the story of Britain.
The Plantagenets inherited a bloodied, broken kingdom from the Normans, and set about expanding royal rule until it stretched at its largest from the Scottish lowlands to the Pyrenees, and from the Ireland to the foothills of the Holy Roman Empire. At the same time, they developed aspects of English law, government, architecture, art and folklore that survive to this day. Despite all this, and having reigned for twice as long as their eventual successors, the Tudors, the Plantagenets remain relatively unknown.
In this gripping, vivid new book, Dan Jones brings the Plantagenets and their world back to life. This is both an epic narrative history of the 'high' Middle Ages, and a spellbinding portrait of a family blessed and cursed in equal measure.
'The Plantagenets' sweeps from Henry II and Eleanor of Aquitaine's creation of a European empire to Richard the Lionheart's heroic Third Crusade and King John's humbling under Magna Carta. It explores the beginning of parliament under Henry III. It charts the fierce rule of Edward Longshanks, who conquered Wales and subdued Scotland but could never come to terms with his own son, the ill-fated Edward II. The book comes to an exciting climax in the age of chivalry, as Edward III saw England triumph in the Hundred Years War while plague stalked Europe, before the Black Prince and his beautiful princess Joan of Kent raised a son, Richard II, who would come to destroy the Plantagenet legacy. It is a compelling, fascinating journey through Britain's most spectacular age.
