Jonathan Sumption
Landlord of England Art Thou
The Eagle and the Hart: The Tragedy of Richard II and Henry IV
By Helen Castor
Allen Lane 688pp £35
‘The English kill their kings’, declared a political pamphlet circulating in 15th-century France. It was true. Of the nine kings who reigned between 1307 and 1485, five were deposed and killed because they were unfit to rule. Either they were tyrants, like Richard II and Richard III, or they were useless, like Henry VI, or, like Edward II in his final years, they were both.
France conferred a semi-divine status on its kings. None of the Capetian kings of France was deposed before Louis XVI. The English took a more robust view. Kingship was a demanding job on which the wellbeing of the nation depended. If it was not done properly, the holder of the title must either cede his powers to ministers chosen by others or suffer deposition and death.
The most enigmatic and in some ways the most tragic victim of this process was Richard II. He is the central figure in Helen Castor’s compelling narrative of the long and bloody political crisis that began with the descent of Edward III into senility in the early 1370s and ended
Sign Up to our newsletter
Receive free articles, highlights from the archive, news, details of prizes, and much more.@Lit_Review
Follow Literary Review on Twitter
Twitter Feed
Paul Gauguin kept house with a teenage ‘wife’ in French Polynesia, islands whose culture he is often accused of ransacking for his art.
@StephenSmithWDS asks if Gauguin is still worth looking at.
Stephen Smith - Art of Rebellion
Stephen Smith: Art of Rebellion - Wild Thing: A Life of Paul Gauguin by Sue Prideaux
literaryreview.co.uk
‘I have fond memories of discussing Lorca and the state of Andalusian theatre with Antonio Banderas as Lauren Bacall sat on the dressing-room couch.’
@henryhitchings on Simon Russell Beale.
Henry Hitchings - The Play’s the Thing
Henry Hitchings: The Play’s the Thing - A Piece of Work: Playing Shakespeare & Other Stories by Simon Russell Beale
literaryreview.co.uk
We are saddened to hear of the death of Fredric Jameson.
Here, from 1983, is Terry Eagleton’s review of The Political Unconscious.
Terry Eagleton - Supermarket of the Mind
Terry Eagleton: Supermarket of the Mind - The Political Unconscious: Narrative as a Socially Symbolic Act by Fredric Jameson
literaryreview.co.uk