Content Warning: This section contains graphic violence, including depictions of war, mutilation, killing, and rape. Additionally, Jones uses language that reflects the attitudes of the historical figures in his work, including anti-Muslim, anti-foreigner, anti-LGBTQ+, antisemitic, and ableist sentiments.

Jones discusses the importance of the Plantagenets as England’s longest-reigning royal dynasty that structurally and culturally shaped England. He provides a broad overview of the vacillating fortunes of the Plantagenet kings and their territories between 1120-1399.

William the Aetheling was an important political figure as Henry I’s only legitimate son. His training and his diplomatic connections to Anjou (through marriage) and France (through a homage ceremony) prepared him well for kinship. A shipwreck killed him along with an entourage of the most important Anglo-Norman nobles of his generation, representing a huge personal and political loss to Henry I.

Henry I died in 1135. Although his barons had sworn to uphold his daughter, Matilda, as successor at his request, her cousin, Stephen, immediately claimed the throne and secured backers. Blood did not solely determine who would become monarch; elective and martial elements were also at play. Matilda’s husband’s attempts to claim Normandy for their son, and administrative disorder and discontent with his rule, troubled Stephen’s reign.