Hammer of the Scots by Jean Plaidy (Plantagenet Saga Book Seven)

 

Publication Date:

January 1, 1978

Genre: 

Historical Fiction, Medieval Historical Fiction

Length:  

326 pages

Series:

Plantagenet Saga

Book description courtesy of Goodreads:

The news of Henry III's death reached his son Edward on the long road home from the Holy Land. Now he was England's King and a man fit for his destiny.

Through all the years of his reign, through stark personal tragedy and chill forebodings as his son grew into a weak, corrupted prince, Edward I strove to weld a nation united from England and Scotland and Wales.

When the mighty Wallace raised the Scots in arms and the Welsh Llewellyn strove for power, Edward stood firm to his resolve, still knowing in his heart how much would be lost when his crown passed down to his dissolute son.

My Thoughts:

As anyone who reads my blog knows I'm a huge Jean Plaidy fan. And there aren't that many books about Edward I so I have wanted to read this one for awhile. It is really hard to find and I had to buy a used copy online. You can't even get it on Kindle.The cover is funny to me because it was written in 1978 and has that romance novel vibe which this book is anything but. It makes me curious if this actually made some women buy it and be disappointed that it is really historical fiction. It is such a different time now and I guess this is what she had to do to sell her novels back then. 

I seem to be in an Edward phase right now as I have a non-fiction book about him going and plan to read another book that just came out about him. This book starts with the death of his father, Henry III and finishes with Edward's death so we see the entire scope of his reign. She doesn't spend much time on his early years, just some flashbacks by his mother remembering how things used to be. I have read quite a bit lately about Henry III's reign and so it picked up in a good spot for me to understand what was happening at the time.

The most interesting and unique parts of the book were surprisingly not his clashes with Wales and Scotland (although those parts were great too!) but rather his relationships with his children, especially his daughters Eleanor and Joan. I had read that both his father and he were very devoted to their children and almost indulgent which I don't picture much for medieval Kings. And Joan's story was almost a book in itself with scandals and secret romance, I had no idea! 

This is what I love about Plaidy's books....she makes history come alive through the people and makes you realize they are human like all of us. Even though he was a ruthless King, creating the method of hanging, drawing, and quartering someone (a gruesome death), he was seemingly a pushover with those he loved. You come away conflicted in how you feel about him and whether to hate him or admire him. The memorials he builds in honor of his late wife called the Eleanor crosses are monuments that you can still visit today (not all of them but several). He was a loving, faithful husband by all accounts, again, very unusual for a King of that time.

This was one of her better books, although it may just be that I enjoyed learning about things I couldn't find anywhere else. I still need to finish The Reckoning by Sharon Penman which covers the life of Llywelyn the Last of Wales and his clashes with Edward I. This book has given me a broad picture of the time and so will help understanding it in more detail. William Wallace of Scotland is also the subject of two long chapters and so you learn all about the most important conflicts of the time. 

This was an excellent book and I'd like to read the next two about Edward II and Edward III.