The Plantagenets

by Ben Hubbard

For almost 350 years the Plantagenet family held the English throne – longer than any dynasty in English history – and yet its origins were in Anjou in France, French remained the mother tongue of England’s monarchs for 300 years, and only in its family’s final decades did English rather than French become the language the king used in official correspondence. Furthermore, although the family managed to remain in power for so long, this was not without kings being deposed, ransomed and imprisoned, or without sons plotting against their fathers for the throne and wives turning against their husbands. The Plantagenets is an accessible book that tells the whole narrative of the dynasty, from the coronation of Henry, Count of Anjou, in 1145 to the fall of Yorkist Richard III at the Battle of Bosworth in 1485. But in charting the fortunes of the family, the book explores not only military victories and defeats across Europe, on crusade and in the British Isles, but how England and its neighbours changed during that time – how the authority of Parliament increased, how laws were reformed, how royal authority could struggle with that of the Roman Catholic Church, how the Black Death affected England, and how universities were founded and cathedrals built. Illustrated with more than 200 colour and black-and-white photographs, maps and artworks, The Plantagenets is an expertly written account of a people who have long captured the popular imagination.

Genres: History, British Literature, Biography, Nonfiction

224 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2018

About the author

Ben Hubbard is an accomplished non-fiction author of books for children and adults. He has more than 160 titles to his name and has written on everything from Space, the Samurai and Sharks, to Poison, Pets and the Plantagenets. His books have been translated into more than a dozen languages and can be found in bookshops, libraries and schools around the world.

Reviews

[Stephen · Rating 4 out of 5]

thanks to the publishers and netgalley for a free copy in return for an open and honest review

detailed history looking the Plantagenet Dynasty from Henry II to Richard III a family whom through in fighting died out but overall its interesting and lets the reader look at this period of English history.

[Blake Booth · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great, brief introduction to the bloodiest dynasty of England. Perfect for a quick intro.

[Theediscerning · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read to gain publicity for the 2022 paperback edition.

Yes, this history book certainly does suffer for covering so many centuries of action in highly pictorial form in just a couple of hundred pages, but this is for the people who need the bare bones and not the forensics. Henry 2, Richard the Lionheart (and this kind of bodges his bodged return to England, it has to be said), bad John, Henry 3 – all are just the start of this look at the Plantagenet line. If you do need to know how vicious Simon de Montfort got to get his name on an ex-polytechnic, then here is all the average reader would care to learn. If you are ignorant of the chumminess between Teddy 2 and Gaviscon, especially at the coronation of Teddy with his child bride, then it’s here. If you need any nuance and doubt about the Princes in the Tower, then look elsewhere.

This is light history, and as such it is not the kind of book I associate with this publisher. That said, the picture research is definitely of their usual standard. It’s the kind of book you go through twice – once on the text, the other for the captions and box-outs. That said, it is very easy here to learn a little about a lot, and if that is your approach to history this is highly pictorial, pithy and precise. I still think my expectations were not quite met, and its little hiccups and biases kind of nudged me down to three stars for this. If this is intended as revision for University Challenge it will fall short; many another basic quiz show and it may well find its place.

[Kelly Kidwell · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great introductory history to the era (an interesting one), summarized in a digestible format. It’s a good starting point for people unfamiliar with the Plantagenets, or British history in general. Wouldn’t recommend to someone who’s already aware of the high-level history and wants to dig deeper. I’d definitely read another of this author’s books to be exposed to more eras of world history that I know little about.

[Simon Chipps · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.75 stars
The text is akin to an A-level text book, based from the bibliography wholely on existing secondary sources rather than original research. As such it is a very good introduction to people new to the period. I still found it an enjoyable read, the cover showing the Wilton Diptych is beautiful.The variety, amount and choice of illustrative pictures inside is excellent.

[Crowley · Rating 3 out of 5]

It has been a few months between having read this book and reviewing it properly, however overall I found it to be a good entry to those who are unfamiliar with the subject matter, but have an interest. A bit of a slog at points, but lots of interesting facts.

Unfortunately, I had read about one of the kings mentioned, Edward Longshanks just beforehand, and found discrepancies in this book, which really made me question its accuracy.

Also I felt that the author may have been overly critical of the monarchs in the book. It's not as if the kings and Queens before and after the Plantagenets were all better people. Least the weren't Cromwell or Henry VIII. Surprising to me was the detest felt by the writer when writing about Richard the Lionheart. I admit that the man was the reason why England lost France, but he was hardly the worst ruler England had ever seen, or was the worst ruler in the world at the time.

TLDR: sometimes a bit slow, appears to have author bias, good for entry point for the subject.

[Lady · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a brilliant book. I love learning about history and what is a more interesting time than fighting British Kings falling out with different countries and plenty of controversy. This book contains everything you need to know about the plantagenet era and the problems they cause England. The information was delivered so well making it easy to follow and take in. Its so very interesting and I learnt so much from reading it. I loved all the historic pictures that accompanied the text. The most interesting and rememberal section was the one looking at the Knight fights where the rule were not to hurt or kill anyone. Well they didn't always listen and often the innocent watchers were often trampled. And the countryside was often left a mess. The layout worked really well with the brilliant mix of text to pictures as it went through the different Kings and notable figures, events seamlessly. I definitely recommend this book to all history fans.
So much praise goes out to the author and publishers for creating this brilliant and interesting book.