The Conquering Family

While I do not think that Mr Costain stands in the first rank of medieval historians, His four volume history of the Plantagenet family in England is the best written, most engaging work of medieval history I have ever encountered. He makes the people of the time come alive, maintains an outstanding general chronology, and has enough interesting asides from the main story to light the passions of those only casually interested in his subject matter. I cannot recommend it highly enough! One note of caution: his treatment of John and Edward II is somewhat unfair, but may be more a result of the age of his work than any bias....

I picked up this book and haven't been able to put it down. Mr. Costain has written a vivid and engrossing account of the lives of the Plantagenets who ruled England. He begins with Henry I (who was not a Plantagenet), whose daughter Matilda married, for her second husband, Geoffery of Anjou (who would be the first to be called by the name Plantagenet). The family is handled down to and including John, brother of the so-named Richard the Lion Heart.His account is respendent with detail where it exsists historically or is highly suggested culturally. He notes the difference by indicating what was probable, what was possible, what is known, and what is thought to be known. Before I click over into my dry academic language, let me say that this book rocks! It is obviously well researched. I would recommend reading this BEFORE you read Alison Weir's "The Princes in the Tower." After you read "The Conquering Family" may I suggest picking up "The Three Edwards" (also by Costain). This will give you a good portion of the background and backdrop of English History against which the tragedy of the imprisonment and subsequent disappearance of Edward V and his brother Richard, Duke of York (not to be confused with their uncle who would later become Richard III). THEN read "The Princes in the Tower," which of course examines, in light of ALL of the available historical evidence, the 'who-did-it,' 'when,' and 'how' of the disappearance and death of the two young princes (King and Duke actually).Given the time period which "The Conquering Family" treats, there are next to no pictures. While I would dread to see enough pictures to warrant calling this a pictorial history, I would suggest that some portraits of the participants and such, would have helped to spark the imagination of the reader and to further engage their interest. Also, while there are maps in the book, there is no listing of the maps in the front of the book, and a map of locations such as Anjou, could only have served to enhance the readers' perspective and understanding of the subject matter. Now if someone would only buy me "The Magnificent Century" and "The Last Plantagenets"!

[Note: This review also appears under Mr. Costain's "The Last Plantagenets," the fourth of his four-volume history of the Plantagenets. If you read but one volume, read this one. Appreciate Eleanor of Aquitaine; experience the early crusades and the trials of Richard, the Lionheart; and learn just how magnanimous was (or was not) John in his signing of the Magna Carta.]Mr. Costain is a very good historian. His scholarship is thorough and his conclusions are always logically wrought and sometimes surprising. His sensibilities are contemporary, although I would not term him a "revisionist," (he wrote this history in the 1950s). For example, in this first volume, the author dashes myth and idle folklore to side with those historians who portray Eleanor of Aquitaine as the wise and effective check on Henry II and her sons that she no doubt was. In so doing he disperses, through well-reasoned argument, the rumors and "Entertainment-Tonight" kind of fluff (History-Lite) that many still believe. Additionally, Costain's defense of Richard III (in the final volume) he travails against conventional opinion to demonstrate why King Richard was, indeed, not the Richard III of Thomas More as popularized by Shakespeare and held true to this day. I had been told these four volumes were classics. After reading them, but without being a scholar of history, I think those critical readers might be right. Certainly, Mr. Costain opened my eyes to a different kind of history telling, one in which an historian does not hesitate to conjecture or opine openly and to honestly make his case and then leave it for a reader's judgement. From front to back, from first through fourth volumes, this is a valuable and pleasurable experience. Mr Costain, presents, argues, harangues convention and, always entertains with a use of the language that is as sharp as his reasoning and as precise as his scholarship. Mr. Costain is a very good story-teller.

THE CONQUERING FAMILY is the first book of four by Thomas Costain on the Plantagenet kings of England. In my opinion, this set, and the 3-volume masterpiece by Shelby Foote on the U.S. Civil War, are the best historical series I've ever read. (The last three volumes in the Costain quartet are: THE MAGNIFICENT CENTURY, THE THREE EDWARDS, and THE LAST PLANTAGENETS.)THE CONQUERING FAMILY chronicles the reigns of Henry II (1154-1189), and his sons Richard I "the Lionhearted" (1189-1199) and John (1199-1216). Henry II, in my opinion the greatest of English monarchs, created an empire that included not only Britain, but perhaps as much as two-thirds of present day France (thanks, in great part, to his marriage to the dynamic Eleanor of Aquitaine, the Duchess of that province and the former Queen of France.) By the end of John's reign, virtually all French possessions were lost and England was racked by civil war. No chip off the old block was John.The general public usually associates Henry II with his quarrel with, and eventual murder of, Archbishop Thomas Becket of Canterbury. Richard I is, of course, "the Lionhearted" king who crusaded in the Holy Land against the infidels, and who has a fictional association with Robin Hood. And, lastly, there's the misfit King John, of Magna Carta fame. A perfect companion piece to this volume is the 1968 film THE LION IN WINTER, starring Peter O'Toole as Henry and Katharine Hepburn as Eleanor, the latter winning an Academy Award for her performance. The film's story evolves over Christmas, 1183, in the royal castle of Chinon, as Henry, Eleanor, and sons Richard, Geoffrey and John quarrel, backstab, and plot amongst themselves as to which son will inherit the thrown on Henry's death. It's my all-time favorite film for reasons given in my review of it on this website. More to the point, the book and the film are consistent in their portrayal of this royal family as dysfunctional with a capital "D". It's a quote from Hepburn's Eleanor that heads this review, and which says it all. (By comparison, the current English royal family is merely a bunch of trivial sissies.) Both the book and the film are powerful portrayals of a ruling dynasty, the likes of which the world will likely never see again. If you're at all interested in English history, you absolutely must not overlook either the Costain series or the movie.

Thomas Costain managed to create in one book entertainment, a research source and a book that has pleased people interested in medieval history and the first Plantagenets for quite some time. "The Conquering Family" is not a dry textbook, Costain has given the history a flow which makes the reading more interesting without sacrificing the facts so that the book is a good read for those who are not especially interested in history as well as a good resource for students on the English monarchy from Henry II through Henry III. This and the other three books in the series, "The Three Edwards", "The Magnificent Century" and "The Last Plantagenets", makes a good basis for launching any interest in medieval studies.