This book is a popular retelling of a tale told countless times: the story of the British monarchy and its colorful characters between roughly 1066 and 1215, with emphasis on the Angevin period after 1154. Though Barratt (independent scholar) has a PhD in medieval history, most of his work (as listed on his website) consists of popular contributions unrelated to the Middle Ages. He is best known for being an on-air personality of historically themed shows on the BBC. Restless Kings is very readable, but it provides nothing new, and even what it does offer is less useful than it could be. Barratt includes no source citations at all, and the scanty "Further Reading" section includes outdated recommendations like Edward Gibbon's The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire and C. W. C. Oman's works, the latter almost a century old. For those who have never heard of the Middle Ages or the Plantagenets, this book may be better than nothing, but not by much. Summing Up: Optional. General readers only.

--L. W. Marvin, Berry College

Laurence W. Marvin

Berry College

Delving into the tumultuous histories of the first three Plantagenet kings of England, Barratt (The Forgotten Spy) crafts a concise, riveting look at a family destroyed by ambition and the complexities of Anglo-Norman politics. Beginning with the dramatic events leading to the ascent of Henry II, great-grandson of William the Conqueror, Barratt illustrates how the Angevins—Henry II and his sons, Richard I and John—left a lasting imprint upon both Great Britain and France through war, loss, and administrative innovation. Struggling to hold his continental lands as well as his English kingdom, Henry II maintained a peripatetic court that necessitated the creation of a centralized bureaucracy, established the importance of the Chancery and Exchequer in British government, and provided the mechanisms necessary to finance armies and fortifications. Yet, his decision to divide his holdings among his contentious sons led to the fracturing of the family and a series of conflicts resulting in the eventual loss of the continental Angevin domains during John's notoriously disastrous reign. VERDICT A highly readable exploration of a strong-willed family who left an indelible mark on European history.—Sara Shreve, Newton, KS

Medieval fiscal historian Barratt argues that in the 12th and early 13th centuries, the highly contentious British royal family oversaw the foundation for the British bureaucratic system, including the Magna Carta, which helped shape much of the modern Western world. During this period, Henry II and Eleanor of Aquitaine schemed with and against each other and their four surviving sons, Henry, Geoffrey, Richard the Lionheart, and the incompetent John. Henry's long reign garners the most attention, with an especially clear account of his disastrous power struggle and falling-out with Thomas Becket, the archbishop of Canterbury; the resulting assertion of papal authority over the English crown remained until the 16th-century English Reformation. Barratt's moniker of "restless" certainly fits, but the subtitle's reference to kings neglects the significantly influential Plantagenet women noted in the text. Scholarly and well written, Barratt's history serves up operatic action punctuated with wry comments. Between the bickering and bloodshed, Barratt's focus on a remarkable royal branch, which used its fondness for familial warfare to make substantial continental acquisitions, yields a fascinating tale. (Jan.)