From the time I was a teenager through a good portion of my twenties, historical fiction was my go to genre. John Jakes, James Michener, Edward Rutherford and others were among some my most reliable authors. Michener and Rutherford would take one location, and use one or two families across the centuries (or millennia) to hit the highlights of English, Polish or Hawaiian history in one comprehensive tome, while John Jakes wrote sweeping family dramas spanning several books. I also loved novels like The Mists of Avalon because it was mostly historical fiction with some fantasy aspects and from the perspective of a woman (unfortunately, revelations about the author’s personal life have made that one complicated). Yet at some point, I shifted from historical fiction to fantasy and YA. I am not sure if I hit the point where I felt like there were only so many takes I could read about Queen Elizabeth or if the genre as a whole started feeling a bit repetitive and predictable (you could make the same argument for other genres about being predictable but at least they never claimed originality). I also never quite got into Philippa Gregory (mostly because I extremely dislike her take on Anne Boleyn). Additionally, I had some bad luck with trying to branch out to new topics, and then other novels were fine but felt rather shallow and forgettable in the end.
I first discovered Sharon Kay Penman because of her trilogy about Henry II. Henry II is one of my favorite English monarchs but while his wife, Eleanor of Aquitaine, has had a few novels and biographies devoted to her, I had a hard time finding novels or non-fiction accounts of him (he does make guest appearances in Arianna Franklin’s medieval mysteries). Many of the Amazon reviews referenced her Welsh Princes trilogy but I wasn’t in a rush to read another of her trilogies after completing the three volume epic on Henry II, his rise to power and the eventual family drama though I knew I would eventually read her again. I was in London a few weeks ago, and it reminded me of all of my favorite historical fiction novels, inspiring me to finally pick this one up. This novel is exactly the kind of story that made me love historical fiction to begin with!
Based on title of the trilogy, I naturally assumed this novel would mostly be about the Welsh princes and the rise of Llewellyn. However, while the novel begins with Llewellyn at the age of 9 or 10 as a new comer to England due to his mother’s second marriage, the novel then spends a large amount of time with John, King Henry II’s youngest son. Rather than going through every single battle that helped Llewellyn rise to his power, Penman spends the majority of the beginning of the novel with John, his relationship with his brother Richard, his mother Eleanor, and trying to illuminate his character. In between, there are passing comments about a new rising power in Wales, and a few chapters spaced years apart showing Llewellyn’s progress. I actually appreciated this approach. Going through every battle on a rise to power that started when the leader was 14 could easily get bogged down in details but Penman is much more interested in developing her characters, the personal interactions and politics.
King John would play an important role in Llewellyn’s life so his development makes sense even if it was at first unexpected (also, while the Henry II trilogy was written after this one, I appreciated seeing what happened to Henry’s family after his death in more detail). After all, while Wales may dream of complete independence, sharing a border with a country larger and more populous means that its leaders will always have an impact on political considerations. Beyond that, Llewellyn ends up married to John’s illegitimate and eldest daughter, Joanna, and John’s shadow looms large in their marriage, almost making him a third member.
Penman adds quite a bit of detail to her characters and what is going on in England, Wales and France, covering a vast amount of space and time but presents it all in a way that is understandable. She adds insights into the figures and can show the complexities of historical personas, such as John and Richard. Richard ended up being lionized while John was vilified in history, but both were highly flawed individuals (I actually like Richard less than John at least partially because history was kinder to him despite him being just as violent and in many ways more prejudiced – just look at Richard’s approach to his Jewish populace vs. Henry II or John’s). In this novel’s portrayal, John was his own worst enemy because despite his intelligence, he would make decisions that would drive allies away and make enemies of them. I always find it interesting with history, and even family dramas, how the second generation just can’t live up to their predecessors. Henry II was a great king and warrior but he didn’t know how to share power and properly teach his sons. They in turn were always in conflict with each other, and lost some of what he created. While reading, I always want the legacies of these great men to live on, for their families to continue with success, but the one person’s genius very rarely is repeated in successive generations.
Similarly, Llewellyn must wonder about the longevity of his successes – Welsh inheritance makes brothers even more competitive than in Norman-French England – so he worries about how his sons will continue his own battle to keep Wales relatively independent of England, and their relationship with each other.
Penman also spends a lot of time exploring Joanna, her marriage, her changing opinions of her father and his legacy, and her growth from timid child to consort with political opinions and pull. With all her independence, Penman never turns Joanna into a modern woman, a pitfall that many authors occasionally fall into. Many of her mental struggles still very much represent a woman of another time. Additionally, Penman perfectly balances sharing details and attempting to provide emotional insight. Compared to some other historical fiction novelists, Penman sometimes seems a bit more distant, and doesn’t try to spend as much time in the minds of her characters who after all were alive once. She shows the actions, occasionally inserts what the person may have been thinking, but her approach in many ways feels more like that of a historian than that of a novelist, if that makes any sense. On occasion, that made her Henry II trilogy a bit dry in the later books, but she does it perfectly here, providing educational entertainment and gripping drama. I’ve already downloaded the next two novels in the series and can’t wait to dive into them!