Arise, England: Six Kings and the Making of the English State

Arise, England is a brilliant and lucid account of the emergence of the building blocks of the English nation during the Plantagenet years by two of the foremost experts in the field. From the bitter constitutional wrangling of King John and his barons to the upheavals of the Lancastrian revolution in 1399, Burt and Partington show precisely and engagingly why the Middle Ages matter - this is an essential book for anyone interested in this most fascinating era of British history.

In brilliantly forensic style, Burt and Partington tell the fascinating story of the English state - kings, people and institutions - across two tumultuous centuries. Arise, England is an absorbing and eye-opening account of what the Plantagenets did for us.

The political history of medieval England is often told as the story of discrete reigns. Arise, England by contrast offers a political narrative, detailed and accessible, sweeping across all six reigns between 1199 and 1399. Vivid descriptions of character and acute analyses of immediate situations are intertwined with such themes as the impact of Magna Carta, the evolution of parliament, the expansion of the common law, the transformation of armies, the widening of the political community, and the emerging ideas of the common good which ensured harmony under the best kings and provided a barrier against the tyranny of the worst. Arise, England thus provides an illuminating introduction to a critical phase in the development of the English state.