LIONHEART

If you thought the story of the Plantagenets of England was over with Devil's Brood, forget it! Here is a brilliant historical novel about Richard I, known as Richard the Lionheart. Sharon Kay Penman writes a convincing account of the Third Crusade (1189-1192) and states in the author's notes that the story will end in her next novel, A King's Ransom. This is a highly enjoyable novel backed up by historical resources as she states, "Lionheart was a unique writing experience. I've never had such a wealth of eyewitness accounts of events." In my opinion, Sharon Kay Penman equals or supersedes anything Bernard Cornwell has written about medieval times, only lacking Cornwell's ability to describe death by combat.

Richard the Lionheart was a glorious leader in both combat and military strategy, but lacked empathy for anyone that wasn't a loyal Lord, Knight, soldier, or honored opponent. The author says he slaughtered 2,600 Saracen prisoners at Acre in the Holy Lands for supposed military reasons that are suspect to some historians. His constant strife with the King of France, Philippe Capet, is legendary and well chronicled in this novel. I also find it interesting that Richard's love of valor and honor in battle actually led him to knight some enemy Muslim Emirs. His struggles with French support coupled with the tenacity of his Muslim counterpart Saladin led to a truce instead of total victory in Jerusalem. According to the author, this gnawed at Richard since he vowed to free Jerusalem when he "took the cross". To the chagrin of his Queen Berengaria, Richard never visited Jerusalem because of this failure.

This splendid story also details Richard's harrowing trips at sea to Cyprus, Sicily, and finally to the Holy Land. The research I did shows that almost every character in this novel existed. King Philippe of France did conspire with Richard's brother John to take Richard's crown while he was fighting the Holy War. This was against papal mandate, but the Pope at the time was old and weak. The next book will deal with what happened to Richard the Lionheart and all the other characters after a depressed King Richard left the Holy Lands.

To sum it up, this was a great read that was expertly written. Thanks to Penman for her Cast of Characters (there are many with difficult names to remember). Also important and interesting are her many pages of author notes and acknowledgments. I didn't read the trilogy about King Henry and Queen Eleanor written prior to this book, but certainly will read the concluding book about "One of history's most dysfunctional and fascinating families."

RATING: 5 out 5 stars

Comment: It's somewhat of a curiosity that during these years, the King of England lived in France and only considered his English holdings as a source of revenue. Richard is purported to have said that he would have sold London if he could have found a buyer. Richard is also known to speak mainly French along with other European languages, but not English!