Birth of the Plantagenets

Queen Eleanor of France, said to be the most beautiful woman in Europe, has not been able to give birth to an heir. A strategic liaison with Geoffrey the Handsome, the virile and charming Duke of Normandy, could remedy that - or lead to her downfall and Geoffrey's death. What begins with cool calculation becomes a passionate affair. Despite his love for Eleanor, however, Geoffrey has larger plans: to help his warrior son, Henry, seize the English throne.

1154: After years of manipulation and political cunning, young Henry II accedes to the throne of England, with Eleanor of Aquitaine by his side. But the kingdom he inherits is an impoverished shambles after the long, troubled reign of Stephen the Usurper. Henry appoints Thomas Becket, the unordained Archdeacon of Canterbury, as Chancellor. In a dance of scheming, vengeance and forbidden passions, during one of the most turbulent and compelling periods of English history, Henry, Eleanor and Becket fight for political power and control against forces seen and imagined.

The third book in the captivating Birth of the Plantagenets series brings the 12th-century reign of Henry II and his wife, Eleanor of Aquitaine, to vivid life. England’s Archbishop of Canterbury is dying and with him the power of the Church. Seizing his chance, King Henry II sets out to enforce the rule of law that he has painstakingly established to bring violent, corrupt and criminal clergy before his courts. The ever-scheming courtier Thomas Becket uses his mastery of deceit, sycophancy and wit to undermine the monarch and the Plantagenet dynasty.

England, 1171. Thomas Becket is dead, beheaded at the altar of Canterbury Cathedral. As news of his assassination spreads across the country and into Europe, Henry's reputation as a just and mighty king begins to disintegrate. Eleanor, no longer loyal, nor in awe of her husband, instigates the revolt she has craved for years - with Henry's three eldest sons as her allies against their father. Yearning to dethrone him and to gain power and liberty for herself, she begins to stir trouble at court.

Eleanor of Aquitaine has disappeared. After launching a great rebellion to destroy her husband Henry II’s reign, it seems she has abandoned her sons in the struggle against their formidable father. As treachery radiates from Scotland to the Pyrenees, tension between the kings of France and England erupts into war. Richard, the mightiest of the English princes, is determined to find his mother and avenge her. But Henry is more cunning than Richard or any of the other rebels anticipated and the fates of Eleanor, her sons and France itself, are in jeopardy.