Henry II of England ruled over a domain that stretched from the borders of Scotland to the Pyrenees. His briliant reign, still remembered for the rise and fall of Thomas Beckett, was also characterized by his unceasing efforts to establish a more efficient system of law in his huge and multilingual dominions, and by his strange relationship with his rebellious and influential queen, Eleanor of Aquitain. Two of their sons inherited the throne - the romanticized troubadour and soldier Richard the Lionheart, and the reviled King John, who reluctantly sealed Magna Carta, and who lost French possessions brought to the English crown through his parents. The Plantagenet Chronicles give us a rare chance to hear the voices of the past, through notable figures of the day whose vivid accounts reveal an incredibly adventurous period; an era of Crusaders and cathedrals, of illicit passions and religious fervour, and of political negotiation both in the marriage bed and on the battlefield...