I thought "For the King's Favor" was a very enjoyable read. This book features the same troublemaking Plantagenets, Henry II and his brood of sons. This time, though, the story is told from the perspective of outsiders. Ida de Tourney is Henry's young ward. She heads to court to see what Henry decides to do about her fate. She wants to make a good impression on the King so that she is married off to a good family. Simultaneously, the novel tells the story of Roger Bigod, son of the disgraced Hugh Bigod. Roger struggles to regain his properties after they were confiscated after Hugh's support of the Young King in his failed rebellion against Henry II.

The novel portrays Henry II as a self-centered schemer. While Henry could be loving, he thinks little of other's wishes and only of what is expedient for his own purposes. The middle aged King finds young Ida attractive and essentially rapes her. Ida then becomes his mistress. Meanwhile, Henry keeps dangling Roger's inheritance in front of him, enjoying his ability to collect revenues from Roger's patrimony while also enjoying Roger's loyalty as his liege lord.

Ida, never comfortable as Henry's mistress, finds herself pregnant. Simultaneous to struggling wtih her own ambivalence and moral misgivings about her royal liaison, she decides to arrange her own marriage with Roger Bigod. Roger agrees to the match and the two marry. However, Ida's choice to marry comes with difficult consequences - Henry separates her from her son.

The remainder of the book deals with Ida and Roger battling their demons as a result of their relationships with Henry II - Ida battling her guilt over giving up her son and Roger fighting for his lands, and once he gets them back, to performing his duty as an honorable earl. Chadwick does a fantastic job making people who died approximately eight hundred years ago seem like real, living people. In her author's note, Chadwick mentions that she went to a clairvoyant to help her understand what Ida and Roger might have felt about the key events in their lives. Chadwick's strategy paid off, as she created a very well-rounded life for people about whom not a ton is known.

I think my favorite thing about this book is that the story, although familiar in the sense that it deals with the Plantagenets and William Marshall, felt new and fresh because it centered on characters I knew little about - Ida, Roger, and William Longespee - Ida's son with Henry.

*****5 stars.