The Demon's Brood

June 16, 2014
Seward, who has written on the Tudors and the Hundred Years’ War, gives a whirlwind overview of the Plantagenet kings, from Henry II through Richard III (1154–1485). The book focuses on men, battles, and politics in a manner that ignores the past 50 years of medieval scholarship. While he relies on period accounts and chronicles, Seward (The Last White Rose) doesn’t account for the biases of his sources; a book praising Thomas à Becket, for example, is a hardly a reliable source information on Geoffrey of Anjou, the father of Henry II. Elsewhere Seward proposes motives and beliefs for individuals without providing citations. Strong queens, such as Matilda, the mother of Henry II, are “viragos,” while other queens are disparaged as termagants, lustful, arrogant, cruel, or scheming. Even Eleanor of Aquitaine, Henry’s wife, is barely mentioned. Horrendous punishments, however, are described in gleeful detail, as is an account of Edward II’s murder that is now dismissed by most historians. Seward also reinforces long-demolished stereotypes about the Middle Ages: that all Jews were money-lenders and lived under the constant threat of persecution; that belief in black magic and omens was rampant; and that life was uniformly dirty, superstitious, and violent. There are many scholars and even novelists who have portrayed the Plantagenets and the period more accurately.

September 1, 2014

The Plantagenet dynasty, a union of several European familial houses, retained a grip on the British throne for more than three centuries despite constant wars (including the Hundred Years' War and the Scottish Wars of Independence), upheavals amongst local vassals, and the rulers' own personal flaws. By Seward's (A Brief History of the Hundred Years War) own admission, this title is specifically aimed at the nonspecialist, packing the Plantagenets' 300-year history into a tidy volume that briefly touches upon the highs and lows of the dynasty's 14 rulers. The result is a history that provides a fairly vivid overall picture of the kings themselves, yet the cost of omitting much of the in-depth details of their reigns means that most information is more akin to light sketches than scholarly narratives. VERDICT As in his previous works, Seward has a tendency to present his viewpoint on historical figures (or the viewpoint of his particular sources) as irrevocable fact. However, the breadth of history covered and the author's succinct style will likely make this a satisfactory choice for casual readers seeking a full but accessible history of this dynasty.--Kathleen McCallister, Univ. of South Carolina, Columbia

Copyright 2014 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.