The Plantagenets: The Warrior Kings and Queens Who Made England

Very well-written and compelling. Jones weaves a narrative across 275 years of history and the reigns of a dozen monarchs. His prose is straightforward and he uses the perfect combination of detail and distance to put everything into context. I loved watching the eternal Catch-22 all of the Plantagenet rulers found themselves in: They needed victories in France to boost political capital at home... but those victories required tax hikes that decreased that same political capital. How much of the Plantagenets' fates really did come from their character and abilities, and how much actually came from simple luck on the battlefield?

If you like non-fiction, this is a good one - very readable. I generally prefer historical fiction and so found myself skimming some of the detail, especially around battles. I learned a lot about the Plantagenets who continue to fascinate me. While I usually focus on Henry II, Richard, and John, I found it interesting to learn about the many accomplishments and disasters associated with the Edwards. This book will now send me off to find historical fiction related to Edward I and III and Richard II.

Marvelous narrative history with everything you could want in a story: romance, lust, betrayal, conflict, odd personalities, heroes, and scoundrels.

As familiar as the story might be of the relationship between Beckett and Henry II, it was a reminder to me how little has changed: the church still battles the secular for primacy.

I was quite unfamiliar with the reign of Edward I, especially his campaign against the Welsh and the use of the Arthruian legends to diminish the value of the traditional Welsh stories. He stitched the Arthurian legends into Plantagenet family lore. The campaigns against the Welsh were innovative. Edward insisted that roads be widened to 200 feet and trees and gullies and ditches be flattened so as to prevent show more attacks by the Welsh who were used to harassing his baggage trains and army with guerrilla tactics. He surrounded the Welsh major cities with rings of castles, many of which still stand and are remarkable in that they were designed for offensive as well as defensive use having abandoned the traditional keep for concentric towers connected by rings of walls and no central strong point. (Lots of pictures of these marvelous constructions on the Internet.) He also invented the arrow slits that gave excellent fields of fire to those inside at very little risk to the archer. Castles were used to enclose towns as well making them economic centers. All this was very expensive and this put Edward into an uncomfortable bargaining position so Parliament gained considerable power during his reign.

I certainly would not have wished to be an earl or duke or whatever during the reign of Edward II. Getting on the wrong side of whomever was in power, Isabelle or Edward meant you would run the risk of not just having your head chopped of, but having genitals removed with a bread knife, entrails cut out, dragged by multiple horses, quartered, and on and on. To the applause of crowds.

Richard II, who most likely had some kind of personality disorder, struck me as having uncanny similarities to Trump. He was paranoid, required constant obsequious gestures from his subordinates, brooked no criticism, and when backed into a corner could become quite dangerous, lopping off heads with regular abandon. Watching Pence the other night (or, as George Will called him, the oleaginous sycophant) lead off with servile comments about our dear leader, just made the comparison to Richard II (who was deposed) more blatant. show less

At first I was all like, "Man, the Plantagenets is super long and detailed, I will never get through this book." Then I was all like, "Man, this book is _super detailed_, this is great!" And then I was, "I am bummed because I finished the Plantagenets, does Dan Jones have any other books?" It turns out he does!

The Plantagenets is an immensely readable yet still dense history of the British Royal Family from 1135 to 1399 with the White Ship disaster of 1120, Henry I dying and the country falling into the Anarchy as Empress Matilda and King Stephen of Blois go to war. And from there we are off to the races following the wax and wane of the Plantagenets from the greatest of them (Henry II, Edward III, the Black Prince) to the very worst show more (Edward II, Richard II) and everyone in between. There is blood and treachery and war and murder and regicide and treason and big pitched battles and Scots and crazed Welshmen fighting in swamps and drama.

If you're super interested in the 800th year anniversary of the Magna Carta and its impacts to history, this book goes into pretty good detail.

Loved it, would recommend it. A fine book of history. Totally worth the high ratings it has on Goodreads. show less

A tale full of big personalities, of flawed personalities, of troubled men (and women), of weak men (and women), of wars and 'derring do'; except that it's all real. Wonderfully written it reads like an action adventure but all based on well researched fact. Will make you realise what an epic history our little island and that it was an Empire much longer ago than you might have thought. Looking forward to reading about his take on the Wars of the Roses.

A drunken outing, a ship sinks and a future kiing is dead leaving the country without a clear successor. The result? Twenty years of Civil War. This is how this well written well researched book begins. It then takes us through 250 years of Plntagenet rule. The good, not too much of that, the bad, alot of that, and the ugly. So glad I did not live in the Middle ages. I knew quite a bit of this history going in, but I have always had a fascination with Eleanor of Aquitaine, queen twice, the mother of two Kings, and the women that led her sons in a revolt against her husband. Of course she was imprisoned in various castles for many years, but eventually she once again became a politcal force. She lives into her seventies.

Many names, man show more battles, countries won, countries lost. Powerful people, imprisoned people, people tortured, drawn and quartered. Not good to be near the top or a threat. Does show the politics of the time, the beginnings of the legal system and the Magna Carta, which few Kings adhered to, or only when they were forced too. The Crusades, the expense of these and the constant wars and battles. Family power struggles, the Black Death, and the sad death of a princess.

A very comprehensive, but readable tone of a family that retained power for 250 years. One thing, among many, things I did not know, and found shocking, concerned the country under the rule of Edward II. His treatment of the Jews, and the fact that he made them wear yellow cloth badges on their clothes so they could be identifiable. They were later dispelled from the country. So do we infer that Hitler read history, or was it a fluke that Hitler picked the same color and same means of identification. Chilling! show less

I grabbed this book from the library because I wanted a crash course in Plantagenet history. The Plantagenets ruled England for over 300 years, beginning with Henry II in 1154, and this book covers most of that time. Henry II's mother was Empress Matilda, the granddaughter of William the Conqueror. I thought it was interesting that the family name came from Henry II's father Geoffrey, who liked to wear the yellow Planta Genista blossoms in his hair, leading to the nickname Geoffrey Plantagenet.

This book was well-researched and went into great detail on the major players of the Plantagenet dynasty. Some parts I skimmed over, while others sections I spent a lot of time on. I enjoyed Empress Matilda's story of how she battled her cousin show more Stephen of Blois for control of England. While she was never officially crowned queen, she succeeded in getting her son on the throne as the first Plantagenet king. Eleanor of Aquitaine was another fascinating woman who made a huge impact on Europe during her long life. And I can't forget the Edward II/Isabella of France/Piers Gaveston/Hugh Despenser drama! It was drama to rival the Tudors.

This book paints a vivid portrait of English royals between the Norman invasion and the Tudor takeover. (Though, it did not go as far as Richard III; he needs his own book!) Recommended for anyone interested in an easy to read history of this time period. show less