The Eagle and the Hart

A dazzling tour de force of epic royal history: a compulsive, unputdownable real-life thriller, a gripping portrait of ruthless power politics, and a study of British tyranny based on deep archival research and masterful scholarship, a tragedy of personality, paranoia and megalomania written with the delicacy and elegance of one of Britain’s most brilliant historians at the top of her game

Simon Sebag-Montefiore

Real page-turning history, this remarkable book has all the scholarship of an academic thesis, yet also all the narrative force of a well-written thriller. This tale of high politics, assassinations, family quarrels, the Peasants’ Revolt, tournaments, foreign wars – and at the heart of it all, the gripping drama of two rivals for one crown – is all told in Helen Castor’s witty and alluring prose style

Andrew Roberts

The Eagle and the Hart makes clear why this consequential moment in English history so captured Shakespeare’s imagination. In recounting the gripping story of how Henry of Bolingbroke came to seize the crown of his cousin Richard II, Helen Castor brings their lives as well as this politically fraught (and still resonant) period to life. It is a massive and deeply researched undertaking, beautifully told, and a richly rewarding read

James Shapiro

If ever a book of history was blessed with contemporary relevance, this one is. The dumbfounding, delusional, narcissistic King Richard; the white-knuckle ride of Henry IV, dogged all the way by notions of illegitimacy. I feel these men could have been ripped from today’s headlines. The book’s great achievement is in the storytelling — the unfolding drama, the secrets of power and ambition so beautifully controlled in the telling. The Eagle and the Hart will be a non-fiction book of the year and will deserve the ovations it is certain to receive. When history is this gripping there’s nothing like it

Andrew O'Hagan

An utterly gripping and compelling tale of a deadly rivalry, told with Helen Castor's characteristic verve and exceptional scholarship. The intrigue, turbulence and sheer drama of the Plantagenet age is brought vividly to life throughout. One of the best history books I've read in years

Tracy Borman

Phenomenal historian Helen Castor's masterful plume plunges us into the depths of machination and the abyss of tragedy. This is a masterpiece that leaves the reader both satiated and breathless

Olivette Otele

Helen Castor is the historian’s historian and the writer’s writer. She combines exceptional scholarship with acute psychological insight and gorgeous, pulsating prose. The Eagle and the Hart is a tour de force: a thrilling tale of royal rivalry and a brilliant dissection of the dark heart of political power – both in the 14th century and for all time

Jessie Childs

A sublime combination of scholarship and narrative flair. Ravishing!

Suzannah Lipscomb

Forget William and Harry. The rivalry between cousins Richard II and Henry IV brought 14th-century England to the brink of destruction – as chronicled in Castor’s gripping dual biography

The Telegraph

The Eagle and the Hart is a meticulous account of the precariousness of kingship and the psychology of power. It is also a rattlingly good story, told with scholarship and humanity by one of our finest historians

Helen Carr, The Spectator

The Eagle and the Hart brings the 14th century to life in all its gaudy colour, terrifying bloodletting and high drama. A book to feast on

The London Standard

An exhaustively researched and beautifully written account... The Eagle and the Hart reads not just as a political epic but as a timely reflection on both the dangers of egomaniacal rulers and the challenges facing those who replace them

Katherine Harvey, The Times

A compelling narrative... which conveys the complexities of politics in this fascinating time in exemplary style, with a sharp eye for personality and a profound understanding of the period

Jonathan Sumption, The Literary Review

The Eagle and the Hart is packed with drama and incident, but it’s also written with an electrifying sense of the tensions between individuals and institutions, innovation and tradition, legitimacy and tyranny. This is a masterpiece of narrative history

Matthew Lyons, The Telegraph

The book is astonishingly good. I cannot recommend it highly enough. It is both a gripping, moving, deeply humane study of two contrasting cousins, and a clear-eyed dissection of late medieval England’s polity

Dan Jones, History, Etc

A brilliant achievement.... not just a glorious work of history but a gripping and haunting tragedy. She is not, of course, the first writer to have made a drama out of the crisis that brought the Lancastrians to power, but it is the measure of her genius for narrative and character that the tale she tells does not remotely suffer from comparison with Shakespeare... There was no book published this year, novels included, that I found richer in character; no plot more taut

Tom Holland, The Spectator

Luminous... a rich and vivid history of the Plantagenet cousins and rivals for the English throne... Helen Castor is a historian of great nuance and meticulous scholarship

Kathryn Hughes, The Guardian

A stupendous piece of scholarship which brings the high Middle Ages alive

Neil Denny, BookBrunch

Among the front rank of writers producing thoughtful and engaging popular history, Helen Castor... examines complex events and an extensive cast of personalities in clear, uncluttered prose

Stephen Brumwell, Wall Street Journal

A riveting account of Richard II and Henry IV’s rivalry... The book of the year

Simon Heffer, The Telegraph (#1 in The 50 best books of 2024 – ranked)

A wonderful narrative history of England... rich in medieval colour and human detail

The Times Best History Books of the Year

A beautifully humane medieval political thriller which happens also to be true

Dan Jones, Daily Express Books of the Year

My clear stand-out this year was The Eagle and The Hart... Castor retains the drama of the events superbly

Robbie Millen, The London Standard, Books of the Year

Helen Castor is a master storyteller not only of what she sees as ‘the tragedy’ of their relationship [of Richard II and Henry IV] but also of this most turbulent period in English history, a real-life game of thrones and violent power plays in which one wrong move would cost a careless duke or earl his head and a king his crown. Who said medieval history was boring?

Tony Rennell, Daily Mail Books of the Year

Helen Castor’s The Eagle and the Hart concerns two men – the 14th century king Richard II and his cousin who would be king instead, Henry Bolingbroke – yet it encompasses dozens of characters, hundreds of subplots and some of the most momentous years in English history

Prospect, History Books of the Year

My book of the year is Helen Castor’s spellbinding The Eagle and the Hart, a beautifully written and convincingly argued study of first cousins and bitter rivals Richard II and Henry IV. In her ability to evoke time and place, and to get under the skin of medieval power politics, Castor is without equal

Saul David, Aspects of History, Books of the Year

Helen Castor’s The Eagle and the Hart is the utterly addictive, gripping tale of a deadly rivalry between two cousins: the "thin-skinned narcissist Richard II" and the charismatic, chivalric Henry IV. The intrigue, turbulence and sheer drama of the Plantagenet age is brough vividly to life throughout. Told with characteristic verve and exceptional scholarship, this is one of the best history books I’ve read in years

Tracy Borman, BBC History Magazine Books of the Year