Chronicles of England, Scotland and Ireland (2 of 6): England (06 of 12): Richard the First

Holinshed's Chronicles, composed in 1577, stands as one of the most influential works in English literature not because of its prose, but because William Shakespeare read it and transformed its chronicles into Hamlet, Macbeth, King Lear, and dozens of others. This volume captures the Tudor imagination's encounter with Richard the Lionheart: a king whose legend was already eight centuries old by the time Holinshed wrote. Here is Richard ascending to power in 1189, immediately imprisoning rivals and plotting his legendary crusade, while family intrigue bubbles beneath the surface between his mother Eleanor of Aquitaine and his treacherous brother John. The chronicler presents a world of papal authority, Norman-French nobility, and the first stirrings of English national identity. For readers curious about where Shakespeare found his history plays, or anyone interested in how the Renaissance interpreted the medieval past, this volume offers an unfiltered look at the raw material from which dramatic immortality was forged.