Lionheart and Lackland
by Frank McLynn
"Frank McLynn, known for a wide range of historical studies which are both scholarly and readable, has returned to the original sources to discover what the Plantagenets were really like and how their history measures up to their myth. In a narrative he turns the tables on modern revisionist historians by showing exactly how bad a king John was, despite his intellectual gifts, and in contrast how impressive Richard was - brilliantly successful in war, accomplished artistically and the nearest it is possible to be to the medieval ideal of chivalry. In a narrative that spans most of Europe and the Middle East he shows these larger-than-life characters as they really were - crusading, waging war in France, negotiating with the papacy, engaging in ruthless dynastic intrigue, often against each other: in Richard's case, holding the kingdom together even when fighting in the Holy Land; and in John's, losing Normandy, catastrophically antagonizing the barons over Magna Carta and losing the Crown Jewels in the Wash."--BOOK JACKET.