Sharon Key Penman’s A KING’S RANSOM – The Rest of Lionheart’s Story…

 

This is a well-researched, well-told story of King Richard I after he went on crusade. Returning to France with the best of his faithful men, he moves to take back what the French king took from him while he was gone. Taken captive by the Holy Roman Emperor in violation of the papal decree protecting all crusaders, Richard spends fifteen months chained in a dungeon and imprisoned in Germany while his mother Eleanor of Aquitaine moves heaven and earth to raise the exorbitant ransom. And what a woman!

 

I love how Penman adds fiction to the real story to bring it alive for the reader. The characters will draw you into their lives. Richard emerges, as in Lionheart, as a hero with no equal. For the five years remaining to him, he faces betrayals, intrigues, wars, and illness. His marriage never seemed to be what he or his wife might have wanted and she produced no children. But you will see why the courage, compassion, and intelligence of Richard became the stuff of legend.

 

Highly recommended but start with Lionheart.

 

Sharon Kay Penman’s LIONHEART – Superb Storytelling brings the King Richard’s Crusade to Life

Set in the 12^th century, this begins as the story of Alicia, whose brother, a Templar Knight, is killed in a boating accident on the way to the Holy Land. But Joanna, wife of William de Hauteville, King of Sicily, takes her to Palermo where Alicia thrives under Joanna’s care and the Sicilian sun. And, from there, they join the Crusade led by Joanna’s brother, Richard.

 

Richard, called the Lionheart, the eldest son of Henry Plantagenet and Eleanor of Aquitaine, is a larger than life character as he leads the Third Crusade to free Jerusalem. Penman does a superb job of showing us this man who men followed without question, whose courage led him into the fray time and time again. And she shows us all the disagreements among the Christians and the French king’s betrayal in the campaign against the Saracens.

 

It’s a very exciting and complex story that will draw you in. Based on much research with incredible detail, historical fiction lovers will revel in it. There is also a love story as King Richard marries and takes his new wife and his sister with him to the Holy Land. So there is a woman’s perspective contributing to the story. I loved it so much I then began to read the next in the series, A King’s Ransom.

 

Highly recommended.

 

Sharon Kay Penman’s WHEN CHRIST AND HIS SAINTS SLEPT – History of 12th Century England Brought to Life

This story of England and France in the time of the Civil War between Stephen and the Empress Maude begins in 1135 A.D. and continues to 1154 A.D. As King Henry I dies, his barons faced the unwelcome prospect of being ruled either by Henry's beautiful daughter, Maude, Countess of Anjou, or her cousin Stephen, a great battle commander but a weak statesman. The Civil War that resulted from their struggle for the Crown was to wreak havoc on England and the lives of the common people as barons switched sides time and again.

Penman's novel is like diving into that time in the past. Most of the characters are real and those who are fictional will seem real to the reader. She weaves a splendid tapestry of medieval life and tragedy, even as the way is prepared for Henry II and Eleanor of Aquitaine and the Plantagenets. There is more than one romance in this story and all are well told.

Long at 738 pages, one has to love the history to linger so long in a novel. It seemed to me to get more exciting and more interesting as it went along, especially when young Henry fitz Empress shows up and we meet the delightful, smart and beautiful Eleanor of Aquitaine. Recommended for the lover of historical fiction (which I am).

The Henry II and Eleanor of Aquitaine series:

When Christ and His Saints Slept

Time and Chance

Devil’s Brood