The Restless Kings: Henry II, His Sons and the Wars for the Plantagenet Crown

Medieval fiscal historian Barratt argues that in the 12th and early 13th centuries, the highly contentious British royal family oversaw the foundation for the British bureaucratic system, including the Magna Carta, which helped shape much of the modern Western world. During this period, Henry II and Eleanor of Aquitaine schemed with and against each other and their four surviving sons, Henry, Geoffrey, Richard the Lionheart, and the incompetent John. Henry’s long reign garners the most attention, with an especially clear account of his disastrous power struggle and falling-out with Thomas Becket, the archbishop of Canterbury; the resulting assertion of papal authority over the English crown remained until the 16th-century English Reformation. Barratt’s moniker of “restless” certainly fits, but the subtitle’s reference to kings neglects the significantly influential Plantagenet women noted in the text. Scholarly and well written, Barratt’s history serves up operatic action punctuated with wry comments. Between the bickering and bloodshed, Barratt’s focus on a remarkable royal branch, which used its fondness for familial warfare to make substantial continental acquisitions, yields a fascinating tale. [em](Jan.) [/em]