The Plantagenets: The Warrior Kings and Queens Who Made England

Jones establishes the book’s genre by explicitly describing it in the preface. Though he aims to include some historical analysis, he states that The Plantagenets is a narrative history written for entertainment and designed for popular consumption. As a result, he aims to include events that are both interesting and enlightening. He supports this through the tone and content of this opening section: Part I begins with a dramatic account of the wreck of the White Ship that killed the English heir. He uses literary devices, such as the pathetic fallacy of the ominous stormy weather and pathos, painting vivid pictures of the people who drowned and incorporating a story of William’s attempts to save his half-sister.

This introduces one of the major themes: The Role of the Personal in History. The book’s genre informs his treatment of this theme; he humanizes the content through anecdotal accounts and character portraits. For example, in his Preface, he calls Edward I successful but not “personally endearing” and Edward II “the worst of them on every score” (XXXII). These moral and personal judgments establish that Jones is presenting a lively narrative history that aims to bring characters to life rather than maintain academic objectivity.

Jones peppers this opening section with quotes from well-known primary sources, a technique to lend credibility through referring to evidence; on page 7, he quotes Henry of Huntingdon, William of Malmesbury, and Orderic Vitalis. In line with the entertainment genre, these are poetic descriptions he uses to bring vividness and detail, rather than material he analyses. He does not include footnotes and does not always state his sources. Jones uses these references to enhance the setting of the period and create a sense of connection to the past, rather than to ground the text in academic analysis.

The preface also explicitly introduces two more of the book’s main themes: The Changing Structures of Governance and English Cultural Development. Jones states that “The Plantagenet kings did not just invent England as a political, administrative and military entity. They also helped to invent the idea of England” (XXIX). He establishes these themes through the content of Part I, showing the structures and culture around inherited kingship at the start of this period, for example. It was not the formalized, progressive line of singular succession that materialized later. With William’s commencement of his duties, he and his father functioned as co-kings for a time; Jones also notes the elective elements of kingship.

Henry II’s desire to enforce his claim to the English throne is the main vehicle through which Jones develops these themes in this section. Jones emphasizes that he needed to separate the office of kingship from other magnate titles (such as Duke of Normandy) if he was to stand level with the French king. He used tactical clarification of political structure and the culture of kingship to establish his authority, rather than subjugating his magnates by force. This included an 1153 publicity drive in which he promised the protection of magnates’ lands, the re-establishment of “public authority” and order, and assured “good lordship, not generalship” (35), offering prosperity to his political community, and positioning the office of the king as more than a martial leader of magnates.

Jones also lays the groundwork for his exploration of The Relationship Between Religion and Politics in later sections by embedding religion into this opening narrative, highlighting its importance and connection to succession. He shows the importance of the papacy in ratifying kingship: Eustace was not anointed co-king, weakening his capacity to oppose Henry’s rise. In contrast, two bishops handled negotiations to formalize the succession from Stephen to Henry. Jones also includes Henry of Huntingdon’s connection of political outcomes to the will of God, introducing the ideological notion of the divine right of kings developed later in the book.