num_pages: 304
description: Here is the novel that splendidly evokes life in England in the mid-12th century an England only just emerging from the grip of the old pagan Gods. It tells of the love of the first Plantagenet Henry II for his Saxon Mistresshalf witch half wantonthe love that alienated Henrys proud queen Eleanor of Aquitaine and sowed the seeds of his tragic conflict with his brilliant chancellor and archbishop Thomas Beckett.As the novel opens the anarchy of King Stephens reign is over; the gifted young monarch has restored a measure of order. But throughout Henrys realm deep in the forests in the sacred oak groves the ancient pagan rituals though outlawed are still celebratedthe horned god still demands sacrificial due. Dominating this sweeping novel is King Henry himself. A man of colossal energy and overriding ambition capable of terrifying rages Henry is surprised into tenderness by his passion for his lovely pagan mistress Hikenai. Hikenai is a faery woman dedicated early by her mother to the Old Gods the powerful and savage deities dear to the Saxons long before the Normans and their civilizing clerics arrive. It is their affair and its impact on Henrys tangled relationships with Eleanor and Thomas that lie at the heart of THE LION OF ENGLAND brilliantly reinvigorating this famous triangle. Becket is given a new dimensionan outward piety masking not just love of display and the iron will that would ultimately bring him into confrontation with his king but also a driving bloodlust that stood surrogate for a natural desire for women. And Eleanor more that the promiscuous conniving bitch of record it instead a demanding but committed wife who suffers agonies at Henrys defection yet manages to wait out the Kings grand passion and live to sing another day with a husband altered and matured by grief.
language: English
title: The Lion of England
publisher: Corgi