She also describes a few characters she invented for her fictional account. I appreciate that the author provides Notes at the end of the book to explain minor changes she made for the sake of good narrative. While we cannot know the exact conversations these historical characters actually had with one another, the structure of their lives is as accurate as the documentation can make it after nearly 1000 years. Readers are invited into the culture and society of this period, contrasting its opulence and brutal hardships.
As always, this author has done her research. His death is described in detail and matches several historical accounts I have read of the event. Here he is shown as a significantly flawed man, responsible for at least his share in fanning the flames of enmity between himself and Henry.
Penman portrays Beckett far differently than as the "saint" we meet in many other accounts of him. It covers the middle period of their celebrated English medieval marriage and includes the birth of their 8 children, Henry's romance with Rosamund Clifford, and his friendship and infamous fatal conflict with Archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas Becket. It is the second in a trilogy Sharon Kay Penman has written on the lives of Henry II and Eleanor of Aquitaine.
One bad decision is swiftly followed by another when Henry seeks solace in the arms of Rosamund Clifford, a comely young baron’s daughter.4.5 I rounded my rating up to 5 stars because only round numbers are permitted.
For Becket embraces his new role as defender of the Faith and turns his back on Henry. But when he arranges for his friend and confidant Thomas Becket to become Archbishop of Canterbury he makes a terrible mistake. Warring with the Welsh and Eleanor’s aggrieved first husband, the French King, Henry needs all the allies he can find. Continuing the epic story of Henry II, Europe’s most powerful medieval king, and his beautiful and daring wife Eleanor of Aquitaine – a tale of passionate struggle and murderous betrayal from the heart of the Middle Ages.Įngland, God’s year 1156, and Henry and Eleanor are battling to keep hold of the crown.
0 kommentar(er)
