12th Century
England / France
The First Plantagenet is the story of Henry of Anjou, the man who
became Henry II of England, the first of the Angevin kings of England and
father to two more kings, Richard and John. We meet him as a teenager when he
first sets eyes on Eleanor of Aquitaine and decides that he is going to be her
second husband. We follow him to kingship, strife and ultimately betrayal.
Ms Appleyard has a
unique style that puts her knowledge of events and the politics of the time to
the fore in a treatment that is more docudrama than novel, that has less
dialogue than you would expect. Her research is obviously thorough as far as events,
places, names are concerned, though it is not perfect as the author misses some
things - Henry II was illiterate, and he did not he 'sign' his letters - no king
signed anything in this era, clerks added the name and the seal. Chausses
versus hose, velvet tunics before velvet was used for clothing. The author also
has a slip that is accurate but upsets her title by explaining that Geoffrey of
Anjou was the first Plantagenet, not Henry: 'Geoffrey used to ride around with a sprig of the planta genesta, the
broom plant, stuck in his cap earning him the nickname Plantagenet.'
That said, readers come
away with a thorough understanding of the tumultuous period of British history
that Henry presided over, although one does feel that this ruthless
attention to events and chronology is at the expense of the characters
themselves who are rather underdeveloped. They are firmly under Ms Appleyard's
control and it would have been nice, every now and then, to see them come
alive.
This is not a novel in
the traditional sense, as it is a concise narrative of events from the point of
view of a historic personage in the form of Henry II. However, for history
buffs Ms Appleyard’s narrative is much easier to access than a traditional
history text and far more digestible.
© Louise Adam
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