The Eagle and the Hart: The Tragedy of Richard II and Hnry IV- Helen Castor
Penguin
Release Date: October 15, 2024
Rating: 📚📚📚📚📚
Synopsis: Richard of Bordeaux and Henry of Bolingbroke, cousins born just three months apart, were ten years old when Richard became king of England. They were thirty-two when Henry deposed him and became king in his place. Now, the story behind one of the strangest and most fateful events in English history (and the inspiration behind Shakespeare’s most celebrated history plays) is brought to vivid life by the acclaimed author of Blood and Roses, Helen Castor.
Richard had birthright on his side, and a profound belief in his own God-given majesty. But beyond that, he lacked all qualities of leadership. A narcissist who did not understand or accept the principles that underpinned his rule, he was neither a warrior defending his kingdom, nor a lawgiver whose justice protected his people. Instead, he declared that “his laws were in his own mouth,” and acted accordingly. He sought to define as treason any resistance to his will and recruited a private army loyal to himself rather than the realm—and he intended to destroy those who tried to restrain him.
Henry was everything Richard was a leader who inspired both loyalty and friendship, a soldier and a chivalric hero, dutiful, responsible, principled. After years of tension and conflict, Richard banished him and seized his vast inheritance. Richard had been crowned a king but he had become a tyrant, and as a tyrant—ruling by arbitrary will rather than established law—he was deposed by his cousin Henry, the only possible candidate to take his place. Henry was welcomed as a liberator, a champion of the people against his predecessor’s paranoid despotism. But within months he too was facing rebellion. Men knew that a deposer could in turn be deposed, and the new king found himself buffeted by unrest and by chronic ill-health until he seemed a shadow of his former self, trapped by political uncertainty and troubled by these signs that God might not, after all, endorse his actions.
Captivating, immersive, and highly relevant to today’s times, The Eagle and the Hart is a story about what happens when a ruler prioritizes power over the interests of his own people. When a ruler demands loyalty to himself as an individual, rather than duty to the established constitution, and when he seeks to reshape reality rather than concede the force of verifiable truths. Above all, it is a story about how a nation was brought to the brink of catastrophe and disintegration—and, in the end, how it was brought back.
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I knew the basics about King Richard II and Henry IV, but not much else before reading this book, and The Eagle and the Hart did an amazing job of explaining the how, why, and who of what I knew, what I didn't know, and all the parts in between if the controversial rule of Richard II and his shocking deposition by Henry Bolingbroke (aka King Henry IV).
This is the first of Helen Castor's books that I've read and she dis an incredible job of breaking down the complicated facts of Richard's government, Parliament, and the rebellions, wars, laws, and everything else going on at the time to make the reader understand what was happening- both from Richard's point of view and everyone else's. She sets up what Richard does at a young age so you understand where he's going as he gets older and more capable of controling things himself. The small amount I'd read before on Richard II focused a lot on scholars debating what kind of mental illnesses he might have had. Castor doesn't do anything like that. She gives his story, how he grew up, what he does and lets you decide about him for yourself. The historical sources seem to suggest he was an incredibly immature, vain, egotistical man who felt all the power belonged with him and no one could tell him what to do. Which became a serious problem for much of England.
Henry gets less of the limelight until the later part of the book, but is equally interesting. I thought studying the two men together made the book really effective and memorable.
This is the kind of well-researched, meaty book I love to read and will read multiple times, knowing I will get more out of it each time I read it (and hopefully retain more each time). Well written and excellent for people who know little about the time period or are just looking for a new angle on a subject they already know about, The Eagle and The Hart is just the kind of fabulous work of history I enjoy.