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“The English scorn us as a backward, primitive people, Godless and befouled with sin.��

“Edward is a crusader King; he’d see it as his divine duty to bring [the Welsh] the dubious benefits of English custom and English law. And he’d open the floodgates to English settlers, charter English towns on Welsh soil, �� we’d become aliens in our own land, denied our own laws, our own language, even our yesterdays, for a conquered people are not allowed a prideful past. Worst of all, we’d be leaving our children and grandchildren a legacy of misery and loss, a future bereft of hope.��

THE RECKONING is Sharon Kay Penman’s final instalment in her history of the long-standing bitter relationship between England and Wales spanning the 12th and 13th centuries. Llewelyn Fawr (labeled by history as “the Great��) opened the epic in HERE BE DRAGONS with his declaration of autonomy and Welsh participation in the attempted curtailing of the English monarchy’s “God-given�� rights with the Magna Carta at Runnymede. She continued her magnificent historical opus magnum in FALLS THE SHADOW with the heroic tale of Simon de Montfort’s participation in the preparation of the Oxford Provisions, England’s first stumbling efforts at granting the people true authority in an actual parliament and the natural successor to the Magna Carta. The story culminates in THE RECKONING with Edward I, acknowledged to be one of Britain’s greatest and most ruthless and capable military minded kings, and his ruthless (not to mention incessantly double-dealing, self-serving and narcissistic) suppression of Wales�� ultimately futile opposition led by Llewelyn ap Gruffydd, Llewelyn the Great’s grandson.

Despite its inordinate three volume length as a triple barrel doorstopper and its unquestionable complexity, Sharon Kay Penman’s brilliant story-telling powers and her extraordinary ability to create true-to-life characters with brilliantly portrayed depth and motivation made the entire trilogy a gripping and deeply compelling read from first page to last.

While THE RECKONING might be read purely at face value as a historical romance and a horseback, swords and maces war-time adventure tale, I doubt very many readers would take that approach. Sharon Kay Penman’s consistent attention to over-arching historical themes �� misogyny and the use of women as political pawns in arranged marriage; the unfolding development of modern English from Welsh, Latin, and Norman French; pregnancy, childbirth, midwifery and the very sketchy state of medical care; the rather questionable attention paid to considerations of personal hygiene; the expectation of monarchies to unquestioned obedience and rights to such things as taxation despite the often capricious nature of their decision making; Islamic hatred and anti-Semitism; and the gob-smacking extraordinary power of the Roman Catholic Church and the papacy �� make THE WELSH PRINCES trilogy an excellent learning tool for the entire topic of 13th century life in Great Britain.

Notwithstanding its awesome near 2000 page length, Sharon Kay Penman’s THE WELSH PRINCES trilogy ranks as some of the finest historical fiction a reader could possibly lay their hands on. Unquestionably recommended

Paul Weiss