Nobody writes British historical fiction better than Jean Plaidy. And this novel is Plaidy at her best. Focuses on the lives of the powerful and scheming nobleman John of Gaunt, and his passionate love, Katherine Swynford, Edward the Black Prince and his wife Joan of Kent and his son Richard II. Begins with Edward III and the complete hold the common born Alice Perrers has over him, and how she, despised by his family and the entire nobility, steals the jewels and rings from his fingers at his death.We read of Edward the Black Prince and his prowess as a general in France and his love for Joan of Kent, the fair maid of Kent. What I like about Plaidy's treatment of women in her novels, is that unlike,e many authors of historical fiction (including some today) she does not sell us the ridiculous and prejudiced ideas of women as either virginal saints or wanton harlots. Her women characters often have pasts, are usually sexual beings, may even engage in promiscuity, but for all that are multi-dimensional characters who she treats with understanding and perception, hence Kathrine Swynford and Joan of Kent, thought they both have 'pasts' are determined and loyal in standing by their men and in caring about their children,After he inherits the throne he young Richard is surrounded by ambitious uncles who are determined that England would be better off if they had the throne. Inspired by the ideas of John Wycliff, the great religious reformer , the peasant, unable to bare extreme grinding poverty and oppression and crushing taxes, rebel against the established feudal order and demand better conditions and more equality. We see the slender , attractive young king Richard commanding the allegiance of the peasants after their leader Wat Tyler is killed by the Mayor of London. Richard however shows he is not of impeccable character by mounting Tyler's head on a spike. Though Richard promises the peasants he will be their leader he certainly did nothing to alleviate their conditions or bring about any greater social equity.Richard proves him both ineffectual and a petty tyrant, and revenges himself on four of the five appellant lords, who for a time curtail his power.Jean Plaidy go's further than merely hints at his homosexuality, though there are no explicit sex scenes here.After the death of his loyal queen Anne of Bohemia , Richard marries the seven year old child bride Isabelle of Valois, though too young to consummate their marriage in any way, the absolute devotion and fatherly love he shows for her is quite moving.Lots of intrigue and enmity between the different power players, and the eventual paving of the way for the seizure of power by John of Gaunts son, Henry Bolingbroke-to be Henry IV.
