The Plantagenets: The Kings Who Made England

This brilliant new book explores the lives of eight generations of the greatest kings and queens that this country has ever seen, and the worst. The Plantagenets - their story is the story of Britain. A rich, sprawling cast of characters, the Plantagenets were both gifted and cursed by an inherited trait that made some brilliant rulers and statesmen, and others cowards, bullies and tyrants. They ruled over wars of conquest and wars of defence. They fought holy Crusades and bitter feuds with Rome. At times their subjects enjoyed prosperity, security, national glory and vast wealth; at others they suffered plagues, invasions, famines and ignominious defeat at the hands of their enemies. The Plantagenets were by turns beautiful and cruel, judicious and insanely paranoid, brilliant and a tragically flawed family. The Plantagenets is divided into three parts, each telling a gripping story of the three main eras of Plantagenet rule. Together they combine as a historical epic of the sort that has not been written of British history for nearly a century. Parts I, II and III, The Angevins (c.1 150 - 1272), The Edwards (1272 - 1360) and The English (1360 - 1399) look at fascinating characters such as Count Goeffrey V of Anjou, the first Plantagenet, Richard the Lionheart and his less famous older brother Henry, Edward the Black Prince and the stunning and influential princess Joan of Kent. In a book of dazzling scope and ambition, Dan Jones paints a psychological family portrait of the royal house of Plantagenet, creating a mesmerising new history of Britain before the Tudors. This is truly a definitive book building on the compelling style of his first book, Summer of Blood, bringing medieval Britain into vivid focus for the modern reader, and accessible to readers from age 9 to 90.