Bit complicated this. I was reading that Eleanor of Aquitaine book, and a friend of mine suggested I read When Christ And His Saints Slept by Sharon Penman, because it's set during the Anarchy. I checked the library, and alas they had no copy. Then I read an interview with Anthony Price, and in it he recommended a book by Cecilia Holland and said it was the best historical novel he'd ever read. Off I went looking for that. Alas, the library had no copy, but it had lots of other Cecelia Holland books, including this one, set... during the Anarchy. I'll have that says I.

To be specific, it's set during the tail end of the Anarchy. The future Henry II is in working his way around the south of England subduing castles and drawing barons to his side. One of them is Fulk, Earl of Stafford, an old supporter of Henry's mother the unpopular Empress Matilda, and now he's busy working for Henry and safeguarding his own interests. Fulk is a highly competent man, with experience and skills in leadership, warfare, organisation and basic political intrigue. As he engages in a forced march, storms a castle, joins a siege, fights in a tourney, subdues unrest in a town he displays again and again his abilities and his shrewdness, though Prince Henry and some of his fellow barons have plans and ideas of their own. What he cannot control, however is his own family. At the heart of everything he does is the hatred between him and his uncle, an outlaw now inveigling himself into Henry's good graces and held in affection by Fulk's son, Rannulf.

Similar to Wolf Hall, in that it's a portrait of a man of his time in his time, and that man is a prosaic, practical exemplar of his type, Hammer Of Princes is written with wonderfully crafted prose, as deceptively plain as its protagonist, strong and unromantic but with unfussy hints of emotion and an occasional appreciation for beauty when affairs allow. A terrific novel.