Chronicles of England, Scotland and Ireland (2 of 6): England (05 of 12): Henrie the Second

This is the raw Tudor history that fired Shakespeare's imagination. Raphael Holinshed's monumental chronicle, composed in the late 16th century, served as the principal source for many of Shakespeare's greatest plays, from the history tetralogies to Macbeth and King Lear. This volume covers the reign of Henry II, the first Plantagenet king, whose troubled reign witnessed the fiery confrontation with Thomas Becket, the martyrdom that would echo through English history, and the bitter rebellions of his own sons. Written in vigorous,议事 prose that alternates between battle chronicles and genealogical detail, Holinshed presents medieval England not as distant past but as living precedent for his Tudor contemporaries. Here you'll find the raw material before it was transmuted into drama: the political calculations, the church-state tensions, the violence that shaped a nation. For readers curious about where Shakespeare found his subjects, or those who want to hear Tudor voices narrating their own turbulent past, this chronicle remains indispensable.