2021 reread via Kindle book from OCLN:
Just as good as I had remembered - I had forgotten most of the details of Costain's 4 book history of the Plantagenets but the wonderful way that he wrote stuck with me. This first book covers Henry II, Richard I (the Lionhearted) & John - the 3 Angevin kings. ( )

Thomas Costain was a Canadian Writer, and decided to write a history of the highly romantic Plantgenet family, and began with this volume which sketches England until Henry II, and then gets into its stride, ending with the melancholy death of john in 1216. There are a number of good stories here, anf TC misses none of them. It is overall a good popular trip, but not likely to produce authorative footnotes. ( )

If you know little to nothing about the Plantagenets this is an easy intro to that complex family.

Five stars here for Costain’s narrative drive, which makes this old popular history of the first Plantagenets a very easy read.

Four stars for the author’s occasional snark of ordinal sources.

Two stars for the author’s obvious biases, the lack of documentation, and authorial inventions of the moods and even appearance of the characters. Two stars also for Costain’s cherry picking which of the original sources he chooses to rate as credible.

Only for beginners or inveterate Costain fans. ( )

2021 reread via Kindle book from OCLN:
Just as good as I had remembered - I had forgotten most of the details of Costain's 4 book history of the Plantagenets but the wonderful way that he wrote stuck with me. This first book covers Henry II, Richard I (the Lionhearted) & John - the 3 Angevin kings. ( )

Containing no footnotes or end notes, this first of four volumes comprising a history of the Plantagenets presents a highly readable history from the Norman Conquest until the death of King John. The narrative offers a wealth of information on Eleanor of Aquitaine, Thomas a Becket, and others. The Magna Carta's text appears in the volume's final chapters. Although its lack of citations makes it inappropriate for scholarly pursuits, its readability endeared it to the masses. ( )