When Christ and His Saints Slept by Sharon Kay Penman

Those last few chapters are far from clean. The last third of the novel truly focuses on Henry, on his relationship with his parents, with his relationship with Eleanor of Aquitaine. The book covers his teenage years: 14 to 19. If the novel is allowed to have more than one hero, well, an obvious choice to me is Henry II. Readers see Ranulf grow up a bit, fall in love, make mistakes, find true love, and settle down to marry and raise his own family. While the novel does focus on the battles, the war, the political mess-it also gives a personal side to the time period. It is not a stretch to fit him in historically since Henry I recognized over twenty such sons! Ranulf along with Robert and Gilbert and Miles and Brien, and countless others supported Maude and her claim to the throne. Ranulf is a fictional illegitimate son of Henry I. If the novel has one hero, one 'main' character, it would be Ranulf. England was in a BIG BIG mess if this was the best either side could manage. The truth was very few cared WHO ruled England, so long as England was ruled peaceably and practically. While neither army was as cruel as they possibly could be all the time, without ceasing, year after year, the truth was that England suffered greatly during this tug of war. Readers see Maude's army do some equally horrid things. Readers see Stephen and his supporters-his army-do horribly cruel things in the name of war.

If there is a point to When Christ and His Saints Slept, it is this: war is ugly and cruel and pointless. Readers meet the men (and women) who supported Stephen's claim to the throne. Readers meet the men (and women) who supported Maude, including many of Henry I's illegitimate sons. Stephen and Matilda, on one side, Maude and Geoffrey, on the other. One of its greatest strengths, perhaps, is in the wide range of characters or narrators. Readers also get a chance to see Maude's son, Henry, grow up to become 'Henry II.' It covers the later part of Henry I's reign: his grief and desperation over the loss of his son and heir, his wanting his daughter, Maude, to be his successor it covers the war-which lasted over ten years-between Stephen and Maude for the crown of England. For readers who like numbers, that would be 1120-1154.

It begins with the tragic sailing of The White Ship and ends with Henry II ready to be crowned king of England. When Christ and His Saints Slept is set in the twelfth century. I've been meaning to read more of Sharon Kay Penman's work for years now. When Christ and His Saints Slept by Sharon Kay Penman.