The Early Plantagenets

An account of constitutional and social development in Britain during the reign of England's first four Plantagenet kings.

The Plantagenet family came to the English throne at a time of rapid change.  It was a period of powerful, ambitious kings, both here and in Europe.  During the early Plantagenet years royal power at first waxed, but was then curtailed in important respects as powerful subjects succeeded in restraining royal authority, firstly by the Magna Carta and then by the development of parliament, whose membership was augmented by members from the common people in the shires and towns who could speak against taxation measures of which they disapproved.