This is mostly a political history covering the reigns of King Henry II through Richard I and John until about 1215 when the Magna Carta was issued. Henry II had four sons, and all of them eventually rebelled against their father toward the end of his long reign. Henry created a tax bureaucracy in England to fund his campaigns in his French domains while both Richard and John used the system to maximize royal revenue resulting in a civil war that led to a more limited monarchy requiring regular parliaments in John's reign. The English barons even considered inviting a French prince to replace John since they preferred an absentee ruler to John's heavy-handedness. The book covers the details of Thomas Becket's martyrdom, the Magna Carta, and the crusades. This is an illuminating book on a time of great change in England and France.
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