Sharon Kay Penman

1945–2021

Sharon Kay Penman is important for readers looking for richly detailed medieval fiction built around dynastic conflict, law, loyalty and power.

Sharon Kay Penman was born in New York City in 1945 and grew up in New Jersey. She studied history at the University of Texas and later qualified as a lawyer through Rutgers. An early manuscript of her first historical novel was stolen from her car, forcing her to reconstruct years of work. She persisted, and The Sunne in Splendour, her novel about Richard III and the Wars of the Roses, was published in 1982.

Penman went on to write two major sequences: the Welsh Princes trilogy and the Plantagenet novels, which follow rulers and families from Henry II and Eleanor of Aquitaine through later medieval conflicts. She also created the Justin de Quincy mystery series. Her legal training supported a strong interest in inheritance, oaths, evidence and the political consequences of marriage, while extensive travel and use of chronicles grounded her settings in real landscapes. Penman treated historical figures with empathy but did not remove the brutality of dynastic politics. She died in 2021. Her novels remain valued for their depth, long-form character development and sustained attention to medieval Wales, England and France.

Periods and events

Medieval Period High Medieval Angevin Empire Henry II and Eleanor of Aquitaine Medieval Wales Late Medieval Wars of the Roses Yorkist England Battle of Bosworth Field Second Barons’ War Edward I’s Conquest of Wales Crusades Battle of Hattin Crusader States

Series

Series by Sharon Kay Penman (3 series)

Henry II and Eleanor of Aquitaine in Order

by Sharon Kay Penman 5 books 4.5

The five Angevin novels trace the Plantagenet dynasty from the succession crisis after Henry I through Henry II and Eleanor’s turbulent marriage, their sons’ rebellions, Richard I’s crusade, captivity and final campaigns. The sequence combines royal family drama with the Anarchy, Angevin state-building, church–crown conflict and the Third…

When Christ and His Saints Slept

4.4

Time and Chance

4.4

Devil’s Brood

4.7

Lionheart

4.3

A King’s Ransom

4.6

Welsh Princes Trilogy in Order

by Sharon Kay Penman 3 books 4.6

The trilogy follows native Welsh rulers and their families across the thirteenth century, from Llywelyn the Great and Joanna through Simon de Montfort’s baronial reform movement to Llywelyn ap Gruffudd’s final struggle against Edward I. It treats Welsh politics, marriage, kinship and resistance alongside English royal expansion.

Here Be Dragons

4.6

Falls the Shadow

4.6

The Reckoning

4.6

The Queen’s Man in Order

by Sharon Kay Penman 4 books 4.3

These medieval mysteries follow the fictional royal agent Justin de Quincy in 1193, while Eleanor of Aquitaine governs for the captive Richard I and John manoeuvres for the throne. Each investigation links murder, theft or conspiracy to the political instability of the Angevin realm.