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Historical person
1155–1183
Henry the Young King was the eldest surviving son of Henry II and Eleanor of Aquitaine. Crowned during his father’s lifetime in 1170, he possessed the title of king but little independent authority or income. Frustration contributed to the great rebellion of 1173–74 and later conflict with his brothers. Celebrated for tournament culture and princely generosity, he died from illness in 1183 while campaigning against his father and brother Richard.
Henry is a major character in Sharon Kay Penman’s Devil’s Brood, which examines the rebellions within the Plantagenet family. Historical fiction often presents him as charming, wasteful and easily influenced, but his grievance reflected the unusual contradiction of being an anointed king without a realm to govern. His early death radically changed the family succession and Richard’s path to the throne.
In Elizabeth Chadwick’s The Greatest Knight, after rescuing Eleanor of Aquitaine during an ambush, he enters the household of Henry the Young King and earns fame on the tournament circuit, where victory can bring both wealth and dangerous envy. Ben Kane’s Lionheart is set in 1179, Henry II rules a vast collection of lands, but rivalry and rebellion continue to divide the Plantagenet family. Other novels featuring Henry the Young King include Sharon Kay Penman’s Time and Chance, Jean Plaidy’s Revolt of the Eaglets, Elizabeth Chadwick’s Shields of Pride, and Elizabeth Chadwick’s The Winter Crown.
Historical context
Series
The five Angevin novels trace the Plantagenet dynasty from the succession crisis after Henry I through Henry II and Eleanor’s turbulent marriage, their sons’ rebellions, Richard I’s crusade, captivity and final campaigns. The sequence combines royal family drama with the Anarchy, Angevin state-building, church–crown conflict and the Third…
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The Lionheart series recounts the rise, crusade and embattled kingship of Richard I through the eyes of Ferdia, an Irish captive who becomes Richard's loyal follower. Beginning during the troubled final years of Henry II, the trilogy follows Richard's accession, the Third Crusade, his rivalry with Saladin and…
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Elizabeth Chadwick’s Eleanor of Aquitaine trilogy follows one of medieval Europe’s most formidable rulers from her inheritance of Aquitaine and first marriage to Louis VII of France through her turbulent partnership with Henry II of England. The novels place Eleanor’s marriages, motherhood and political ambitions within crusade, dynastic…
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The Plantagenet Saga spans the dynasty from Henry II and Eleanor of Aquitaine to Richard III. Across fourteen novels, family rebellion, disputed succession, royal marriage and war connect the Angevin Empire, the conquest of Wales, conflict with Scotland, the Hundred Years’ War and the Wars of the Roses.
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Elizabeth Chadwick’s William Marshal cycle follows the Marshal family and the households bound to it from the civil war of the Anarchy to the crisis of King John’s reign. A Place Beyond Courage centres on William’s father, John Marshal, while The Greatest Knight and The Scarlet Lion trace…
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Standalone books
