Books: The Plantagenets: The Warrior Kings and Queens Who Made England by Dan Jones

Today’s book recommendation is by one of my favorite authors and TV presenters: Dan Jones. This was an excellent book on a consequential time in history. It saw the development of the common law, the creation of legislative bodies, and the turning point that was the Magna Carta. It’s packed with great drama too. If you enjoyed Game of Thrones then you’ll enjoy this. There’s also a great documentary called Britain’s Bloodiest Dynasty that you can look up too.

Click here for past recommendations.

Description

The first Plantagenet kings inherited a blood-soaked realm from the Normans and transformed it into an empire that stretched at its peak from Scotland to Jerusalem. In this epic narrative history of courage, treachery, ambition, and deception, Dan Jones resurrects the unruly royal dynasty that preceded the Tudors. They produced England’s best and worst kings: Henry II and his wife Eleanor of Aquitaine, twice a queen and the most famous woman in Christendom; their son Richard the Lionheart, who fought Saladin in the Third Crusade; and his conniving brother King John, who was forced to grant his people new rights under the Magna Carta, the basis for our own bill of rights. Combining the latest academic research with a gift for storytelling, Jones vividly recreates the great battles of Bannockburn, Crécy, and Sluys and reveals how the maligned kings Edward II and Richard II met their downfalls. This is the era of chivalry and the Black Death, the Knights Templar, the founding of parliament, and the Hundred Years’ War, when England’s national identity was forged by the sword.