Customer Reviews

Magnificent Century

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To my surprise, I found this to be the best of the four-volume series by Costain on medieval English history. Perhaps it was due to the fact that I started in the belief that Henry III did not merit an entire volume to himself. Then I realized that this Weathercock King lived an extremely long life and all that happened during his reign was momentous indeed. For instance, learning how the Countess of Flanders played a part in ensuring future Vatican Cardinals always wear red is something I didn't think I would chance upon during this read. Or all the little bios Costain supplies for people long since lost to the annals of time. Great stuff, I simply couldn't put it down.

I first read these books 20 years ago, and the opportunity to purchase them in a new edition is the thrill of the year for me. Costain makes the period come alive, with all its heroes, villains, and bystanders. While many of Costain's opinions and conclusions are somewhat dated by more recent research, there is no more delightful reading experience amongst modern histories of the middle ages.

The second installment of Costain's four-volume history of the Plantagenet dynasty. Very readable, very personal biographies of the early kings of this royal house. Costain brings the art of the novelist to writing history.

Costain's entire four-volume history of the Plantagenets, "The Pageant of England," is the reason I became a historian and history teacher. I had liked history before, but I'd never before read history that read like a novel. He brought these figures to life in a way that lit a fire that still burns brightly. In short, an excellent history, which I re-read every few years--especially The Magnificent Century!

I have read this book so many times I have worn out my copy, in paperback. I would and do recommend the book to anyone anyone who wants to start learning the history of England and the Middle Ages. The Late Mr Costain brought the people to life, which was a rare gift, he also being a novelist knew how to tell a tale, both are great for generating an interest in history. He leaves a great foundation for a student to build a knowledge of history on.

Thomas B. Costain is one of the most readable of historians because he firstly draws on an awareness, gained in his years as a novelist, of the necessity on the part of a writer to above all reach out to his reader. An even greater praise might be this: Costain is also one of the most intelligent historians I've ever had the good fortune to read.

This is Costain's second volume in his well-rounded four-book history of England during the rule of its most storied dynasty, the Plantagenets. Here, in just under four-hundred pages, Costain concentrates on the events of the thirteenth-century reign of Henry III, who came to the throne in 1216, and who passed away forty-six years later in the autumn of 1272. Beginning his story during the regency of the great and good William Marshal, "right hand man" of four monarchs, and ending it shortly after Prince Edward's crushing of the baronial revolt led by Simon de Montfort, Costain makes the interesting case that the thirteenth-century was perhaps the grandest and most glorious if not in the whole of English history, then undeniably that in the era of the Plantagenets.

This was the first volume I've read so far in the quartet, but it won't be the last.

Remember that Costain was a novelist, not a historian. What Costain did with these books was to write a series of novels that were based on history but are bad history. Costain writes with purple prose that prejudges his subjects. You cannot do that with history. He constantly says how "bad" King John was. Was he? He had his failings but for a self-styled "historian" to call him "bad" or "evil" at every turn is ridiculous. After all, some base their opinions of King Richard III on Shakespeare's play - which was written to set Richard in a bad light and Edward VII, the first of the Tudors (of which his patron, Elizabeth I, was one) in a good light. History has since shown that Richard III was a fine monarch nor was the deformed hunchback depicted by Shakespeare. Again, bad history, great play. In Costain's books nothing is footnoted, conversations are fabricated, and history is disregarded. For example, he says that King John signed the Magna Carta (which he misspells) and that there was one. Wrong! There were 41 copies and each was sealed by the King, not signed. A small error? No! If he gets that wrong, what about the rest? Again, good novel, bad history so read these as novels but do NOT take them as history.

Costain gives his usual rousing treatment to a period not widely treated.

The book was rated as 'good' quality in the advertisement, but when it arrived the cover immediately fell off.