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1781858829

A realm divided : a year in the life of Plantagenet England.

Author: Jones, Dan.

Publication year: 2015

Language: English

Media class: Hardback

Classification: 942.033

Publisher: London : Head of Zeus, 2015.

ISBN: 1781858829 9781781858820 (hbk): 20.00

Notes:

1215 - the penultimate year of the reign of a king with the worst reputation of any in our history - saw England engulfed by crisis. Weakened by the loss of Normandy, King John faced insurrection by his disgruntled barons. With the assistance of the Archbishop of Canterbury, they drew up a list of their demands. In June, in a quiet Thames-side water-meadow, John attached his regal seal - under oath - to a charter that set limits on regal power. In return, the barons renewed their vows of fealty. Groundbreaking though 'Magna Carta' was, it had scant immediate impact as England descended into civil war that would still be raging when John died the following year. Jones's account of the vicissitudes of feudal power politics and the workings of 13th-century government is interwoven with a exploration of the lives of ordinary people.