THE DEVIL'S CROWN. A HISTORY OF HENRY II AND HIS SONS.

by Richard Barber

The story of Henry II's turbulent relationship with Thomas á Beckett, Queen Eleanor, and his sons Richard and John. A tie-in with the BBC2 mini-series.

Genres: History, Biography, Medieval History, Nonfiction

174 pages, Hardcover

Published January 1, 1978

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name.

Richard William Barber is a prominent British historian who has been writing and publishing in the field of medieval history and literature ever since his student days. He has specialised in the Arthurian legend, beginning with a general survey, Arthur of Albion, in 1961, which is still in print in a revised edition. His other major interest is historical biography; he has published on Henry Plantagenet (1964) and among his other books is the standard biography of Edward the Black Prince, Edward Prince of Wales and Aquitaine. The interplay between history and literature was the theme of The Knight and Chivalry, for which he won the Somerset Maugham Prize in 1971 and he returned to this in The Holy Grail: Imagination and Belief (2004); this was widely praised in the UK press, and had major reviews in The New York Times and The Washington Post.

His other career has been as a publisher. In 1969 he helped to found The Boydell Press, which later became Boydell & Brewer Ltd, one of the leading publishers in medieval studies, and he is currently group managing director. In 1989, Boydell & Brewer Ltd, in association with the University of Rochester, started the University of Rochester Press in upstate New York. The group currently publishes over 200 titles a year.

Reviews

[Bettie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Description: The story of Henry II's turbulent relationship with Thomas a Beckett, Queen Eleanor, and his sons Richard and John. A tie-in with the BBC2 mini-series, the book includes extensive genealogical charts and an Index of Main Characters.
-- Detailed but fast-moving narrative of some of the best-known figures in English medieval history.
-- Complete coverage of the Crusades and other major military campaigns of the period.
-- Intrigues of the royal family placed in the context of religious and political conflicts of the time.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rwb7E...



Brian Cox is just superb as Henry II, and we lose him at the end of episode five. The action is a gallop through - it has to be, there were so many events that need to be relayed.

Although not as fine a script as A Lion in Winter, there are pithy one-liners galore here, and Jane Lapotaire was so effective as Eleanor that it was tough holding back the tears when the Queen died. Fully recommended.



Brian Cox as Henry II of England
Michael Byrne as Richard I of England
John Duttine as John, King of England
Jane Lapotaire as Eleanor of Aquitaine
Christopher Gable as Philip II of France
Ralph Arliss as Geoffrey, Archbishop of York
Charles Kay as Louis VII of France
Jack Shepherd as Thomas Becket
Kevin McNally as Henry the Young King
Lynsey Baxter as Isabella of Angoulême
Freddie Jones as Bertran de Born
Peter Benson as Blondel de Nesle
Roy Boyd as Ranulf de Glanville
Lucy Gutteridge as Alys, Countess of the Vexin
Michael Hawkins as Richard de Luci
Ian Hogg as William de Braose, 4th Lord of Bramber
Ralph Michael as Hubert Walter
Patrick Troughton as William Marshal, 1st Earl of Pembroke
Simon Gipps-Kent as Arthur I, Duke of Brittany
Bob Goody as Guide
Zoë Wanamaker as Berengaria of Navarre
Lorna Yabsley as Alys, Countess of the Vexin
Susannah Fellows as Rosamund de Clifford



Ep.1 - If All the World Were Mine
Ep.2 - The Earth Is Not Enough
Ep.3 - A Rose, a Thorn
Ep.4 - The Hungry Falcons
Ep.5 - Before the Dark
Ep.6 - Richard Yea and Nay
Ep.7 - Lion of Christendom
Ep.8 - When Cage-Birds Sing
Ep.9 - Bolt from the Blue
Ep.10 - In Sun's Eclipse
Ep.11 - The Flowers Are Silent
Ep.12 - Tainted King
Ep.13 - To the Devil They Go

[Christine · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am tempted to call this a good introductory book for those interested in the Angevin kings of England, but I fear I am too well-acquainted with their story to know if that is a fair statement. Instead, I will say that it is a competently constructed whirlwind of a book. What Barber does, is provide an admirably even-handed and condensed version of the lives of Henry II, Henry the Young King, Richard, and John. Very condensed in fact, since the entire thing is less than two hundred pages. By bringing it down to such a short length, it could easily feel like he is lobbing event after event and name after name at the reader. That said, as means for me to refresh myself quickly on some of the events, it definitely served its purpose.

This book was composed as a companion to a BBC Documentary, and as such it is written in language for a popular reader. However, because of this it contains one of my greatest peeves in history books: an extreme lack of footnotes and end notes- there are literally none. A small further reading list is provided, but that does not tell you where any of his specific information was found, and I do wish that detailed (or even minimal!) specific source citations were provided.

[Lynne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Eruditely written brief history of the early Plantagenets which, I vaguely recall being on BBC from the cover. A nice introduction rather than lavish scholarship, and very much a product of the thinking of its time (late 70s). Today much more psychological analysis (and heaven forfend a fluffy tv historian dressed up) would be applied to this somewhat narrative depiction of this most dysfunctional of families. What is apparent is that the so-called Lion of England, Richard I is far removed from the Sherwoodian hero, given that he probably didn't speak English and spent approximately six months in England, preferring to wage wars against a range of European rulers. No wonder Leopold of Austria was keen to lock him up.
What is interesting to a modern reader is Barber's dismissal of what today is generally assumed to be Richard's bi/homosexuality as 'he certainly had an illegitimate child' although he does acknowledge the well documented account of Richard sharing a bed with the French king.
Use as a stepping stone.

[Joe Owen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great history-biography of Henry II. King of England, husband of Eleanor of Aquitaine,and father of sons who all want to be King, and once a friend of Thomas Beckett Arch Bishop of Canterbury. This is the history of love, betrayal, treason, and tragedy.