The Eagle and the Hart

A riveting account of Richard II and Henry IV’s rivalry... The book of the year -- Simon Heffer * The Telegraph (#1 in The 50 best books of 2024 – ranked) *
A wonderful narrative history of England... rich in medieval colour and human detail * The Times Best History Books of the Year *
A beautifully humane medieval political thriller which happens also to be true -- Dan Jones * Daily Express Books of the Year *
My clear stand-out this year was The Eagle and The Hart... Castor retains the drama of the events superbly -- Robbie Millen * The London Standard, Books of the Year *
Helen Castor is a master storyteller not only of what she sees as ‘the tragedy’ of their relationship [of Richard II and Henry IV] but also of this most turbulent period in English history, a real-life game of thrones and violent power plays in which one wrong move would cost a careless duke or earl his head and a king his crown. Who said medieval history was boring? -- Tony Rennell * Daily Mail Books of the Year *
Helen Castor’s The Eagle and the Hart concerns two men – the 14th century king Richard II and his cousin who would be king instead, Henry Bolingbroke – yet it encompasses dozens of characters, hundreds of subplots and some of the most momentous years in English history * Prospect, History Books of the Year *
My book of the year is Helen Castor’s spellbinding The Eagle and the Hart, a beautifully written and convincingly argued study of first cousins and bitter rivals Richard II and Henry IV. In her ability to evoke time and place, and to get under the skin of medieval power politics, Castor is without equal -- Saul David * Aspects of History, Books of the Year *
Helen Castor’s The Eagle and the Hart is the utterly addictive, gripping tale of a deadly rivalry between two cousins: the “thin-skinned narcissist Richard II” and the charismatic, chivalric Henry IV. The intrigue, turbulence and sheer drama of the Plantagenet age is brough vividly to life throughout. Told with characteristic verve and exceptional scholarship, this is one of the best history books I’ve read in years -- Tracy Borman * BBC History Magazine Books of the Year *
A brilliant achievement.... not just a glorious work of history but a gripping and haunting tragedy. She is not, of course, the first writer to have made a drama out of the crisis that brought the Lancastrians to power, but it is the measure of her genius for narrative and character that the tale she tells does not remotely suffer from comparison with Shakespeare... There was no book published this year, novels included, that I found richer in character; no plot more taut -- Tom Holland * The Spectator *
The Eagle and the Hart is packed with drama and incident, but it’s also written with an electrifying sense of the tensions between individuals and institutions, innovation and tradition, legitimacy and tyranny. This is a masterpiece of narrative history -- Matthew Lyons * The Telegraph *