The powerful, legendary Plantagenet dynasty ruled over England and half of France from the end of the Norman kings through the Crusades and the Black Death to the beginning of the Hundred Years' War. With a keen eye for telling details and a masterful knowledge of sources and research, British historian Dan Jones recounts how the descendants of the dynasty fought for the throne for 300 years. A successful work that gives us a better understanding of why England's most terrible dynasty from Richard the Lionheart to the Magna Carta was able to become so deeply ingrained in British identity. Clever, brutal and power-conscious: the House of Plantagenet ruled over England and half of France from the end of the Norman kings through the Crusades and the Black Death to the beginning of the Hundred Years' War. Eleanor of Aquitaine, the most famous woman of the Middle Ages, was queen twice. Richard the Lionheart went to holy war against Sultan Saladin. Under his treacherous brother John Lackland, the Magna Carta was created, which is still part of the British constitution today. And under Henry III, the English Parliament convened for the first time. The last king of the main line of the dynasty, Richard II, was the model for Shakespeare's drama of the same name, a patron of the arts and a political failure. As exciting as a good film and with a masterful knowledge of sources and research, Dan Jones brings to life a dynasty that, like no other, has provided material for myths, legends and dramas, but whose legacy remains very real to this day.
