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Plantagenet Saga #11

The Star of Lancaster

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Richard the Second was losing his hold on the crown and ambitious eyes were turning toward it. Henry of Bolingbroke, son of John of Gaunt, had married the heiress Mary de Bohun and by her had six children, the eldest of whom was Harry of Monmouth.

Bolingbroke was exiled by the King but returned to England when Richard confiscated John of Gaunt's estates. Bolingbroke came to claim them—and at the same time the crown.

Richard was deposed and died mysteriously, murdered it was said on the order of Bolingbroke, now King Henry the Fourth. But Henry found the crown harder to hold than to win. He was beset by enemies—the Welsh, the Scots and the mighty Hotspur; the country was rumbling with revolt against the King whom many called the Impostor. In addition to these worries Henry suffered anxiety about the loathsome disease which was threatening to destroy him, and he was also worried over the rebellious behavior of his son.

Dominating the court was Harry of Monmouth, his fingers itching to take the crown, his reckless conduct causing scandal since he frequented disreputable company in the low-class taverns of East Cheap with his crony Sir John Oldcastle.

There came a time when the disease which had caused the King to hide himself away claimed him and Harry became King Henry the Fifth. The change was miraculous both for him and Oldcastle. The licentious youth became a great King, and the rake Oldcastle turned into a religious reformer. Oldcastle ultimately was a martyr to his cause and Harry became the conquering hero of Agincourt.

The star of Lancaster was in the ascendant. Harry had brought France to her knees and married her Princess. It seemed that the long war was at an end. But a greater enemy than the French awaited Harry, and the rising star of Lancaster was finally to depend on a nine-month-old child.

250 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1981

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894 people want to read

About the author

Jean Plaidy

187 books1,588 followers
Eleanor Alice Burford, Mrs. George Percival Hibbert was a British author of about 200 historical novels, most of them under the pen name Jean Plaidy which had sold 14 million copies by the time of her death. She chose to use various names because of the differences in subject matter between her books; the best-known, apart from Plaidy, are Victoria Holt (56 million) and Philippa Carr (3 million). Lesser known were the novels Hibbert published under her maiden name Eleanor Burford, or the pseudonyms of Elbur Ford, Kathleen Kellow and Ellalice Tate. Many of her readers under one penname never suspected her other identities.
-Wikipedia

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Displaying 1 - 24 of 24 reviews
Profile Image for Lisa.
950 reviews81 followers
March 2, 2019
This is the first novel by Jean Plaidy I’ve read, and it focuses around the lives and reigns of Henry IV and Henry V, covering the former’s usurpation of Richard II’s crown and the latter’s “glorious” reign (i.e. Agincourt and the French campaign). I knew going in not to expect anything really great from Plaidy, knowing that she had a reputation as a prolific author who sticks to the basics, ticking all the boxes for everything a reader would expect to find in a story about whatever historical period she’s writing about and little else.

And, on the whole, that’s a fair evaluation of what I found in The Star of Lancaster. We do get pretty much everything you’d expect to read in a story about Henry IV and Henry V published in the eighties, but all of it is pretty standard and nothing ever really lifts itself up to deliver an emotional punch.

To begin with the positives – it’s not the worst novel I’ve ever read about Henry V (that dubious honour belongs to Good King Harry). The prose itself is competently written, if rather basic, although I noticed a surprising amount of typos (clearly, however, the fault of the publisher, not author). I also liked that the novel began by focusing heavily on Mary de Bohun, a fairly obscure historical figure.

I rather wish, however, Plaidy had done with her than make her a simple-minded, sweet woman who is manipulated by everyone around her and is slowly killed by her repeated pregnancies. I also really, REALLY wish that Plaidy hadn’t done quite so much to make her marriage to Henry seem extremely creepy. She is manipulated into it, which is bad enough, but the focus is on her youth (10 years old, as stated in-text) and Henry’s almost-five years on top of that (historically, he was 13, Plaidy says that he was “almost” 15), plus the fact that Henry explicitly tells her not to worry about the wedding night because he knows what they have to do and he notes her childish simplicity when they’re about to go bed, plus the fact she immediately gets pregnant and nearly dies giving birth… yeah, no, that’s really disgusting.

It doesn’t help, either, that this storyline of a young boy pushing an even younger girl for marriage and sex is also played out again, nearly beat by beat, by Mary and Henry’s firstborn son Harry (about 13 in Plaidy’s timeline) and Isabelle de Valois. Nor does it help that Isabelle is subsequently revealed to be holding a flame for Richard II, who was 33 years old when he died and had treated Isabelle as his own daughter.

It is worth noting that though it’s now believed that there was no pregnancy and birth when Mary was stupidly young, Plaidy was writing decades ago, before the evidence about this pregnancy was revealed to actually refer to the birth of the child of Eleanor de Bohun, Mary’s older sister.

There are numerous other inaccuracies in the book, though I feel too tired to go into all of them. One of the silliest was Plaidy writing that Harry had a scar on his forehead from the arrow-wound he received at the Battle of Shrewsbury. It was on his cheek and, as the arrow penetrated to the “depth of six inches” (according to the surgeon that removed it), he should be dead in Plaidy’s story. John, Duke of Bedford, goes with Harry to France during the 1415 campaign – no, he was regent of England at this time, and Harry’s other brothers, Thomas, Duke of Clarence and Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester were with Harry instead. There is also very little to suggest the affectionate relationship between Harry and Richard II, which is historically attested.

Plaidy’s depiction of Harry’s “wild youth” borrows heavily from Shakespeare and the stories he drew on, with Sir John Oldcastle standing in for Falstaff. Shakespeare’s depiction, while iconic, is somewhat doubtful, and Oldcastle cannot be easily subbed into Falstaff’s role. Additionally, at times it really felt as though Plaidy was just rewriting Shakespeare’s dialogue.

I, personally, didn’t care for Plaidy’s characterisations of anyone. There was very little depth in them, nor were they particularly sympathetic. The most sympathetic is easily Mary de Bohun, but even then, she was frustrating – I wanted to protect her, to drag her out of the horrible world she’d been written into. Worse, the characters drop in and out of the novel – Clarence is relatively important in Harry’s youth and princedom, but then drops down to cameo-appearances by the time Harry becomes Henry V and I can’t even remember if his death got a mention in-text. Harry himself drops out of the novel for a large chunk.

One of the other annoyances with the novel is the way in which Plaidy suddenly seems to rush through events. We get a fairly slow introduction in the novel, with over 60 pages spent introducing Mary, getting her married to Henry and her first pregnancy, but later, Henry IV’s conflict with the Percys and the Battle of Shrewsbury are all introduced and concluded within one chapter. Even later still, that iconic moment in English history, the Battle of Agincourt, occurs over 2-3 pages with very little detail given. It’s like Plaidy set out wanting to write a great big saga, but then got bored or a deadline loomed and so sped-wrote everything else. One of my friends suggested that Plaidy is more interested in the historical romance aspect of her stories, so maybe that’s another reason why we get 60 pages on Mary and Henry’s creepy “courtship” and about 30 pages on Henry V’s war with France.

In short, The Star of Lancaster is a basic retelling of the lives of Henry IV and Henry V, speeding through the events of the latter’s reign. It is an old book and shows it in its downright creepy depictions of relationships and the reliance on outdated narratives about these two kings. Worse, it doesn’t even manage to be interesting.
Profile Image for Pepca.
334 reviews
January 8, 2021
The Hundred Years' War and the hints at the beginning of what would be the Wars of the Roses and the toils and troubles of Henry IV and V (who both were not the worst of English monarchs) with foreign, but especially domestic enemies amid anglo-french shenanigans told in Plaidy's succinct, simple manner.

That is The Star of Lancaster in short, an interesting read, as Plaidy always is.
Profile Image for Christine Cazeneuve.
1,464 reviews40 followers
June 18, 2018
Terrific book about the reign of Henry IV and his conquering son - Henry V. Read it in two days as the book was so fast paced and full of love, lust, betrayal and intrigue I just couldn't put it down. Jean Plaidy has such a way in capturing the reader and you just surrender to it. This book starts the dawn of the Lancaster period and starts the reader on to the road of the Battle of the Roses. A must read!
Profile Image for Lady Jane Grey.
87 reviews14 followers
January 1, 2014
I read this in high school and I wasn't sure when I was reading through the Plantagenet Saga if I should reread this one. Actually, not really, I was reading the whole thing from start to finish and that was the point, so early on I decided to include this one. I had forgotten so much and it was interesting the little things that I remembered. Jean Plaidy's books are dangerously rereadable!
Profile Image for Vee Bee.
80 reviews2 followers
November 12, 2025
This is another of Jean Plaidy's novels that vividly paints the lives of England's kings. They are quite accurate although of course Plaidy has to make up conversations and fill in some gaps.

This particular novel focuses mainly on the two kings who came after Richard II. The time period covered in this story is roughly from 1399 to 1422 AD.

Henry IV became king after Richard II was deposed. First, Henry was not actually the very next in line to become king, but he was the grandson of King Edward III and he claimed the throne without much pushback. Second, not long after Henry IV assumed the rulership of England, Richard II died under sketchy circumstances. Many felt his death was due to an agent of Henry IV, but it's never been proven. Perhaps because of Henry IV's shaky start, he often had obstacles to overcome as king of England. He suffered from a mysterious disease (perhaps leprosy) and when he died, his son Henry V took over.

Henry V had a relatively short reign, but he continued the 100 Years War and his main goal seemed to be to finally claim the throne of France. He was a very shrewd and successful warrior. Read the book to find out if he actually succeeded in his quest.

This author has a knack of writing history and bringing it to life in a way that makes her books hard to put down. Now on to the next book in this series where I will learn about Henry VI...

Family Corner: The book doesn't have profanity and although it does at times detail the sexual exploits of various characters, no details are given. For example, you find out that so and so took a mistress and they had a child, but no sex scenes. However, this being the Middle Ages, there were some horrendous ways of killing those who went against the crown. It makes me grateful that the 8th amendment of the US constitution prohibits cruel and unusual punishment.
Profile Image for Phil Syphe.
Author 8 books16 followers
January 15, 2018
The first half of the novel is by far superior to the second half. I feel the author should’ve ended this one with Henry IV’s demise, and wrote a separate book from when Henry V took the throne.

I didn’t previously know much about Mary de Bohun, who takes centre stage during the opening chapters. Don’t know what the real Mary was like, but I loved Jean Plaidy’s portral of her.

As with the previous books in the Plantagenet series, the author tries to cover the lives of nearly everyone involved during the period covered. Because of her need to pack everything in, events are rushed over, which leads to lots of "telling" and a lack of "showing".

This is especially so in regards of the Battle of Agincourt. I didn’t have high expectations here, aware that Plaidy was never one for describing battles to any great length, but I did hope for more than a brief summing up of one of the greatest conflicts in history.

As noted, the first half of “The Star of Lancaster” proved very engaging, but part two drifts off in too many directions. The reader is suddenly transported from England to France, introduced to lots of new characters, and – in my case, at least – is left wondering why.

Another annoyance is Jean Plaidy’s trait of repeating info to a ridiculous extent, including references to events in previous books in the Plantagenet series.

Perhaps the main repetitive theme in this book is the widowed queen going on and on about Richard II. No one could replace Richard, never will she love anyone else, never will she forget him, etc., is really forced down the reader’s throat.

On the whole, I found this to be on of the better books of the Plantagenet saga, though like all the others, it has the potential of being much better.
2 reviews
October 3, 2024
A very good read.

I enjoyed learning the history through the story, I read a lot of Jean Plaidys books as I love historical novels. An accidentally told story however the language is a bit archaic(hence only 4 stars)- that’s my only criticism.. I’ll bestarting the next in the series!
19 reviews
January 23, 2021
The next in the Jean Plaidy series about the Plantagenets. Sterting with Richard II on the throne, and then portraying the reigns of Henry IV and Henry V. I enjoyed reading it for the historical facts, easy reading and escapism. Very Jean Plaidy as some things skimmed over eg Agincourt took 4 pages and was a huge, bloody, victory against the odds but I’ll carry on reading more in the series!
Profile Image for Pat.
1,319 reviews
November 4, 2024
Very heavy on the history, which I like, but the characters are quite wooden and not many redeeming values.
91 reviews
October 3, 2017
Vydáno v r. 2010 nakladatelstvím Baronet pod názvem Hvězda Lancasterů.
Po Richardově porážce a smrti se Henry Bolingbroke nechal korunovat (Jindřich IV.). Ale trpěl vážnou chorobou a byl obklopen nepřáteli – Welšany, Skoty i příznivci bývalého krále, a země byla neustále ohrožována povstáními. Dvoru dominoval jeho nejstarší syn Harry z Monmouthu nedočkavě čekající na příležitost zmocnit se koruny a vedoucí skandální život. Pak se Harry stal králem Jindřichem V. a nastala zázračná změna, z mladíka vyrostl velký král a hrdina od Agincourtu, a ze starého prostopášníka neúnavný církevní reformátor. Z cyklu Dynastie Plantagenetů
Profile Image for English .
833 reviews
June 4, 2012
I enjoyed reading Plaidy's account of the early life and childhood of the boy who would become King Henry V, especially the female POV of his mother, an all too often ignored figure, in the early chapters. I barely knew that Henry had 2 sisters as well as his 3 more famous brothers.

The first part covering the reign of Henry IV was definitely stronger than the second part on Henry V which seemed rushed, covering some 7 years in about 50 pages. This could have been a lot larger and far more detailed, as there were as many significant events after the Battle of Agincourt (two years into Henry's reign) as there were before.

One common aspect of this author's work that I find irksome was prominent in this novel. This is her tendency to devote much attention and space to accounts of the lives, actions and actions of relatively minor historical figures who play little or no role in the major events of the period. As much sympathy as I felt for Isabella of France, Richard II's second wife, was a fairly lengthy chapter on her life after Richard was deposed at she was returned to France really necessary? I did not think the entire 'back story' for Joanna, Henry V's French stepmother really added much the story either.

A good read, but a little disappointing if you are looking for a Historical novel about Henry V as King.
Profile Image for Barbara.
331 reviews38 followers
May 31, 2011
This is the 11th part (I think) of this story and it is getting annoying that every books starts with the same events seen from the next king in line. Once you're pst that part it does get interesting though it feels as if Plaidy is getting bored with the story herself and is rushing through the major events.
Profile Image for Kathy .
1,181 reviews6 followers
March 21, 2014
I am always skeptical of historical fiction. Too often it's a romance novel dressed up in period costume. I was thus pleased to discover that Plaidy has a sense of history, a respect for research, solid writing skills. The Plantagenets are old friends of mine, and I enjoy reading their stories in the 942 section of the library. I can safely add Plaidy's novels to that list.
Profile Image for Sara W.
232 reviews52 followers
July 23, 2007
Henry IV (son of John of Gaunt, grandson of Edward III) married Mary de Bohun (mother of his children, she died prior to him becoming king). Henry IV died and his son, Henry V, took the crown. Henry V married Catherine of Valois (sister of Isabella of Valois who married Richard II).
Profile Image for K.L..
Author 2 books16 followers
September 7, 2018
Not a bad Jean Plaidy, Focus was on young Henry IV, Mary de Bohun and young Henry V. Always had a soft spot for Mary, and really felt for Henry in his later years
Profile Image for Paola.
915 reviews40 followers
October 4, 2015
I love Jean Plaidy and really enjoyed her account of Henry V early years such a shame that his star was bright but brief sad destiny of warrior kings.
Profile Image for Sue Law.
370 reviews
December 13, 2016
A well paced novel covering the lives of Heny IV (Bolingbroke) and his son Henry V, as usual primarily seen through the lives of their wives. The ending is rather abrupt, but that's history!
Profile Image for Karen.
170 reviews5 followers
March 10, 2012
Good Book, but felt that the ending was rushed.
Displaying 1 - 24 of 24 reviews

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