The first Plantagenet king inherited a blood-soaked kingdom from the Normans and transformed it into an empire stretched at its peak from Scotland to Jerusalem. In this history, Jones resurrects this fierce and seductive royal dynasty and its mythic world.

Originally published: Great Britain : HarperCollins, 2012, with the subtitle The kings who made England.

Age of shipwreck (1120-1154) : The White Ship ; Hunt for an heir ; The shipwreck ; Ambition ; A scandalous wife ; Henry the Conqueror -- Age of empire (1154-1204) : Births and rebirth ; L'espace Plantagenet ; Unholy war ; Succession planning ; The eagle's nest ; Henry triumphant ; A world on fire ; King Richard ; Hero of the east ; Treachery ; An unexpected detour ; Return of the Lionheart ; Lackland supreme ; John Softsword ; Triumph and catastrophe ; Lackland undone -- Age of opposition (1204-1263) : Salvaging the wreck ; A cruel master ; Beginning of the end ; To Bouvines ; The Magna Carta ; Securing the inheritance ; Kingship at last ; Holy kingship ; The provisions of Oxford ; The Battle of Lewes ; From imprisonment to Evesham ; The leopard -- Age of Arthur (1263-1307) : King at last ; A new Arthur ; The final stand ; The king's castles ; The price of conquest ; The expulsion of the Jews ; The great cause and French trickery ; The conquest of Scotland ; Crisis point ; Relapse -- Age of violence (1307-1330) : The king and his brother ; The king restrained ; Manhunt ; Promise and disaster ; New favorites ; Civil war ; The king's tyranny ; Mortimer, Isabella, and Prince Edward ; Endgame ; False dawn -- Age of glory (1330-1360) : Royal coup ; Glorious king of a beggared kingdom ; New earls, new enemies ; The Hundred Years War begins ; Edward at sea ; Dominance ; The death of a princess ; The Order of the Garter ; Decade of triumph -- Age of revolution (1360-1399) : The family business ; Unraveling fortunes ; The good parliament ; New king, old problems ; England in uproar ; Return to crisis ; Treason and trauma ; The reinvention of kingship ; Richard revenged ; Richard undone ; Richard alone ; Epilogue.