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The Plantagenets and their Queens sweep through history, not a dull one to be found. If they are not busy trying to take land from the French King or better yet be the French King, they are rushing off to a crusade, or taking time out to march on Scotland to subdue the rebellious inhabitants and extend their kingdom northwards. Enlarging their Kingdom was a major preoccupation for the Plantagenets. They arranged marriages, changed and made laws, administered justice mainly to suite themselves. This book gives you not only many personal insights into the lives of the monarch and his court but also the peasants who were continually being caught up in wars not of their making. They paid taxes, battled hunger,and high infant mortality they got slaughtered on the battlefield and at home if they were on the wrong side. When the Black Death reduced the number of skilled tradesmen to a few and they raised their rates the king legislated them down to pre plague rates. The sheer savagery with which the Plantagenets dealt with any opposition, noble, peasant, or on occasion another wayward Plantagenet is horrifying. One quibble, the author has Henry de Bohun challenge Bruce to single combat before Bannockburn, all other books I have read from Prebble to Caroline Bingham aggree that Bohun charged the King without warning, the King riding a palfrey was somewhat outmatched, however, he managed to cleave the Knights head in two and win the following battle. Dan Jones has written an informative, entertaining, fast moving book you will not want to put down.