The Plantagenet we always forget

Watching Heston Blumenthal arrange the infernal horror that is a lamprey’s head on a plate is one thing; seeing an enthusiastic dinner guest suck the raw, bloody meat out of it is quite another — something you will never, in fact, unsee. But finding the YouTube link to this spectacle in the chatty preface to an academic book on Henry III is quite the best indicator that you are in for a colourful ride.

David Carpenter has chosen his subject thoughtfully. The history of English kings and queens is a well-trodden path, yet even aficionados struggle to list three things Henry did well and three areas in which he needed to improve. He is rarely given much space in accounts of the Plantagenets, with the last real exploration being Maurice Powicke’s 1947 biography, but that was more of a charcoal sketch than an anatomical study.

Henry’s relative obscurity is baffling compared to his contemporaries.