When Christ and His Saints Slept: A Novel

This book is wonderfully written. I greatly enjoy reading novels that are historically accurate. This book gives me the history while written as a story instead of just dry facts. I also read the Welch Princes Trilogy by Sharon Kay Penman and I highly recommend that as well.

Prepare yourself for a slog thru endless characters and abysmal people behaving badly and war after siege after war after etc etc. It is a terrific tome otherwise if you want to get a more in depth perspective of who formed Great Britain and the territory and that these guys all spoke French. Why did I not know that? Suspect my history teachers didn't know it either. If you like historical fiction salted with actual events, this is your book.

Like the author, but the the store Kindle edition leaves out very important pieces from front of the book. Sharon Penman always includes maps, and dramatis persona in her books. The the store Kindle edition does not have it. My advice ... DON'T take the Kindle edition; get a copy from your local library instead ...

Sharon Kay Penman is my favorite historical fiction author. Her characters are realistic and deeply human and her dialog believable. And if you love battle details, you'll love this! That is however, the very reason this is my least favorite of all her novels because I found the battle scene detail tedious.

The book focuses on the civil war in England during the 1100s (not to be confused with the one in the 17th century). The players are fascinating. King Stephen, Empress Maud, AND her husband, Geoffrey of Anjou, ALL want the throne of England. And they are quite a dysfunctional group. Plus, there's a gang of equally dysfunctional noble families that play powerful secondary roles.

Here's the issue. After Henry I's only male heir died in the famous "white ship" accident in 1120, Henry named his daughter Maud as his heir. He got all the nobles to swear an oath of allegiance to her. But once Henry died, it turned out none of those nobles really wanted a woman ruler. Maud's cousin Stephen was happy to step in. But Maud isn't the type to give up easily and she has the inheritance of her son, Henry, to think about. And off we go on a 10 year war.

If you're a history lover interested in how the remarkable Henry II of England eventually DOES get to sit on his mother's throne, then this is a must read. This is also the first of three historical novels Penman wrote about this period. So, you'll want to follow this one up with TIME AND CHANCE and DEVIL'S BROOD. I thought both these two books in Penman's Plantagenet's series were excellent!

At first I was excited about reading of Eleanor of Aquitain's youth. But the addition of non-historic characters slowed the pace. In general the book was too long. There was often too much extraneous detail that just did not matter to the story. I stood at Eleanor's tomb at Fontevrault. She was an awe-inspiring women, way ahead of her time. I plodded through to the end of the book, but I don't think I'll read the next one.

When Chris and His Saints Slept is yet another excellent book by Penman. I am always in awe of her writing style. She takes the reader right to the time and place she is writing about. Her books are often long, but worth the ride. I recommed this book to anyone highly interested in early English history.

Very easy to read. Kept me captivated and from what I understand, this author is very historically accurate. I am a student of history but not really this time period. I just ordered her next book in the series. I am now getting into this period thanks to this author's style of writing.

This author is a master to build characters and pictures with only a few words. Very interesting book - you cannot leave it up-to the last page. It is really the best historical fiction I have read in long time and I am a big fan of this kind of reading.

I enjoyed the story, and the subject matter. But it was a chore to read. Characters kept having their names changed. Sometimes called by the first names, other times by their titles...and their titles changed often... It was a long long painful read....

Slow reading due to too many characters. The author should have chosen a main character and told their story. There was no emotional connection to any of the endless characters in this book. None of the hordes of characters in this book is sympathetic or likeable and the book is severely lacking in character development - I was never drawn into any of them and couldn’t get past seeing them as 2-dimensional and boring. And, unfortunately, the author added even more characters which had no relevance to the story, making it more unwieldly. For me, probably the most interesting character was Ranulf – and he’s fictional! What is the point of that?
There was no atmosphere to the story (as there is in Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies) and the writing is dull (again, the complete opposite of Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies). There is no emotional impact. I may as well have been reading a history timeline – it was THAT boring. And such a disappointment after The Sunne in Splendour.

Sometimes I have a difficult time deciding how to rate a book. I expect to find that a 5-star book stands out among the millions of written pages out there. This one does. I have read it before and knew exactly what would happen, but that didn't stop tears from forming in my eyes at times as Penman skillfully made history come alive.

Even the title is more eye-catching and thought provoking than most. When Christ and His Saints Slept was an era of English history fraught with unfortunate events beginning with the sinking of the White Ship in 1120. Henry I, who had managed to sire at least 20 illegitimate children, had only one legitimate male heir. William was expected to be England's next king until he got on board the beautiful but doomed vessel.

Henry I makes his daughter Maude (Matilda) his heir in one of the worst considered last testaments of all time and throws England into a 20 year civil war so bloody and tormented that it was believed that Christ and His saints slept. Maude intends to fight for the crown that few believe any woman should wear, and is shocked when her cousin, Stephen of Blois, is the one to steal it from her.

Enough of restating history, you can find the details of the struggles between Maude and Stephen easily enough. What you will not find is a telling of their lives that is as detailed, moving, and well-written as Penman's. The cast of characters in this novel is amazingly large, but developed well enough that the reader can track them as though they are friends (or enemies). The rich detail of scenery, battles, and historical detail is second to none. The reader will learn as much as if reading non-fiction, while at the same time be entertained by the personalities, humor, and just a little bit of romance. No other author creates a whole world as realistically as Sharon Kay Penman. She is in a league of her own. The reader can sympathize with Maude and cry for Stephen and not find any reason why that should not be so. Picking sides is as difficult for those reading their story now as it was for their nobles those many years ago.

After the back and forth, years of sacrifice and struggle, this installment concludes with the ascendancy of Henry II. He seems like the golden savior of England, and I was almost brought to tears again seeing the beginning of his rule so full of hope and knowing how it is to end. His and Eleanor's story is just beginning when this novel ends, but is continued in the next volume, Time and Chance.

I'm an amateur medievalist, but I've written some medieval stories and am sensitive to details. Penman is excellent at story telling, and she's obviously done some serious research, so I was really enjoying her telling of the twelfth century civil war between Stephen and Maud for the crown of England. But then this young man took his young lady out to the barn for some canoodling. They sat on bales of hay - and I popped out of the story. Hay balers were invented in the 1800s. And there were other, even more trivial anachronisms in the novel: chairs everywhere (stools and benches prevailed; only very important people got chairs - that's why we call the leader of a group the chairman), red dresses (permanent red dye was near impossible). But these bothered me. I did buy The Sun in Splendour, and again the writing was deeply involving, but in that case I didn't buy the deep depression of Richard III - but that was just me, she might well be right about it.

Penman emerged long ago as one of the best historical novelists and continues to solidify her reputation with each new release. Her special genius lies in the bright and shining historical detail that she can weave into both plot and dialog (she's a very good student of history and at times is absolutely brilliant in conveying to us the workings of medieval minds).
Chronologically, this is the first book. It's also the first in the Henry & Eleanor trilogy (the others are Space & Time and Devil's Brood).
There is no doubt When Christ And His Saints Slept will stand as a superior work for ages to come. There is certainly a very complex plot (because this era of English history was quite convoluted). Penman does an excellent job of keeping it all straight for us as she leads us through the maze of characters. Yes, it's complicated but if you read the history of these times you quickly come to see what a great job she did in her design of the story.
There are touching moments (everybody seems to remember her scene of Henry meeting Eleanor in the garden of the Cite Palace) and Penman is great at establishing dynamic moments for a wide range of events (the deaths of Kings, Maude & Eleanor's machinations, etc.). But the true genius is the broad historical scope that is painted on top of the shimmering details of brief moments. It truely does feel as if you are living the story yourself, and it is this bringing us readers in as witnesses that stands as Penman's contribution to the art of the historical novel.
If you prefer to read in chronological order:
1101-1154 When Christ And His Saints Slept (Vol 1 of Trilogy)
1156-1171 Time And Space (Vol 2 of Trilogy)
12th Cent Devil's Brood (Vol 3 of Trilogy)- not yet released
1192-1193 The Queen's Man
1193 Cruel As The Grave
1183-1232 Here Be Dragons (Vol 1 of Welsh Trilogy)
1231-1267 Falls The Shadow (Vol 2 of Welsh Trilogy)
1271-1283 The Reckoning (Vol 3 of Welsh Trilogy)
1459-1492 The Sunne In Splendour

Historical fiction at its best. I did myself a big disservice by starting this book and then putting it down after only 100 or so pages before picking it up again. It's a long, sprawling epic, but it is well worth the read. Penman masterfully tells the story of the beginning of the Plantagenet dynasty, beginning with the infamous wreck of the White Ship, to the ensuing years of anarchy between Stephen and the empress Maud.

It is a little difficult to follow at times because of the names (most of the female characters are named either Maud or Matilda), but there's usually enough context to figure it out. There are a few story lines, and sometimes it can seem a little meandering. If you can stick with it, you will be richly rewarded with a spell-binding tale of love, loss, betrayal, and the quest for a crown, made all the more incredible because it really happened.

A masterful telling of the turmoil between Maude, heir to the throne, Stephen, usurper to the throne, and Henry, Maude's son, this novel is of the riveting history of early England. After a disastrous sinking of a ship and the death of the heir to the throne, Maude, the King's daughter is called back from Germany to be the new heir to the throne. Because of her new husband and the fact that she is a woman, when the King dies his favorite nephew Stephen is given the throne instead. Desperate to win back her inheritance, Maude begins a full scale civil war with Stephen, eager to get back what is her's and her son's.

Many years pass with the upper hand going from side to side. While Stephen was well liked and popular when in the King's court, as a King he is not so much favored. Too quick to forgive and let his enemies rule him he finds it hard to retain the crown and his kingdom. Worse yet, his son Eustace is shaping up to be a not so great replacement for him on the throne.

When Maude's son comes of age he takes up the battle for the crown himself. In doing so he also weds the beguiling Eleanor, one time French Queen. Together they rise against Stephen to restore what is rightfully Henry's; the throne and kingship of England.

This was a very long novel. Penman uses quite a bit of description and as a result early England is very much alive in her work. Told from the third person it skips around from character to character and also time and place. My complaint on this would be that sometimes it would be hard to tell what month or even year it was unless you were at the start of a chapter. Otherwise, her wording flowed beautifully.

The characters were also riveting. While the first portion of the book focuses largely on Maude, the second part turns to her son Henry and she is only mentioned here and there with little to no appearances in the rest of the book. Another large character is the fictional character of Ranulf, an illegitimate son of the king and Maude's brother. While there is no proof of his existence, Penman works him into the story so that the battles can be seen by his eyes, but his presence does not alter the course of history. It was nice to see in that such a time as early England was that Penman created strong female characters, but did not let them act in a way that was unfitting of the times as well.

Overall I greatly enjoyed this book. I was lost some times in the history as I've not studied much on Europe's history, but the novel itself was engaging. I would have liked to know how marrying Eleanor helped Henry in his fight for the throne as I didn't understand the intricacies that went into it and I'm sure I'm not the only one with this trouble as well. It looks like I'll have to open a few history books for my answers. Most of the plot and the telling of the history was straightforward however, and that is what makes this book a truly enjoyable read. I can't wait to move on to the next in the series, Time and Chance.

When Christ and His Saints Slept
Copyright 1995
738 pages

Another of Sharon Kay Penman's wonderful works. This is the first of a trilogy about Henry II and Eleanor of Aquitaine. It took me a little while to get into this book, longer than it took with "Sunne" but after about half way I started picking up speed, especially once it began talking about Henry and Eleanor of Aquitaine. Having never read anything about the struggle between Maude and Stephen, this book was a real eye opener.

Henry I (son of William the Conqueror) loses his only legitimate son when he drowns in the sinking of the White Ship and ends up naming his daughter, the Empress Maude, as his sole heir. Many of the barons of England don't like the thought of a woman ruling them (and they don't like Maude's second husband, Geoffrey of Anjou, who she was forced to marry) and many try to convince Stephen of Blois (also a grandson of William the Conqueror through William's daughter Adela) that HE should claim the throne of England. As it happens, when Henry I dies Maude prepares to head to England to claim her crown and then hears that Stephen has claimed and been crowned King of England. Thus starts one of the most turbulent times of civil war in English history.

The story is told through several POV's: Maude's, Stephen's, and Ranulf's (a fictional illegitimate younger brother of Maude). You also get, at some points in the story, the viewpoint of the common people of England who really didn't care who was ruling over them as long as they had peace and their families were safe. This war that lasted somewhere around 15 years (give or take a few) really brought England to a low spot. I was amazed at how many towns and villages were ransacked and burned, how many innocent citizens died, and how much flip flopping of loyalties occurred. For the people of England, it really was a time "when Christ and His saints slept." Towards the end of the story you see more and more of Maude's son, Henry (the future Henry II), and Eleanor of Aquitaine. When Stephen looses his oldest son Eustace(thank goodness!) he ends up naming Henry as his heir. The story comes to a close not long after Henry and Eleanor are crowned King and Queen of England.

The characters in this story are what every good writer should strive to create. The main characters are not clear cut good, bad, etc. They all have depth to them which is wonderful. I found myself at different times liking, being aggravated by, wanting to slap or hug, several of the main players in this story. I felt sorry for Maude because she was only trying to claim what was rightfully her's and the people of England really treated her badly. Then at the same time, I wanted to smack her because she really didn't help her cause by acting the way she did (which ultimately cost her the crown). Stephen was a likable guy but, besides being a good battle commander, was completely unsuitable to be King (and he DID steal Maude's crown). I could feel some pity for him with all the troubles he had with his barons but he did bring it on himself (just as Maude did). Ranulf was an interesting character to add into the story. You get a very different perspective of what was happening through his eyes. He was very loyal to his sister and seemed to have his head on straight most of the time. I was okay with him through most of the novel though I wanted to hit him because he just couldn't let go of Annora, even though it was obvious that she wasn't going to leave her husband. The last 1/3 of the novel dealt mainly with Henry and Eleanor of Aquitaine but I won't go into much detail about them here as their story is told more in full in the next book. There are many other interesting characters in the story (Geoffrey of Anjou, Stephen's calculating brother the Bishop of Winchester, Stephen's HORRIBLE son Eustace, Maude and Ranulf's brother Robert, Stephen's queen Matilda, John Marshal, etc, etc) but I can't sit here and talk about all of them unfortunately.

I really enjoyed this story as it covered a part of British history that I previously had read very little about. I think the best part came towards the end, once you get more and more of Maude's son Henry and Eleanor. Their story is amazing and continues in the next book "Time and Chance".