Summary of Dan Jones's Summer of Blood

Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book.

Sample Book Insights:

#1 In November 1380, the fifth Parliament was convened to address the crisis facing England. The French, seeing a power vacuum at the head of English government, knew they had the upper hand. England’s enemies scorned the notion that the young king’s government might be capable of reaching a fair and balanced settlement to the Hundred Years War.

#2 Parliament was called in January to vote on a tax to help pay for the war in France, but the tax was not enough. The king had to borrow more money from the merchants of London. The ancient Plantagenet heirlooms and symbols of royal splendour were in danger of being lost.

#3 The Commons were forced to ask for money from the king. Sir John Gildesburgh, a politician, led the commons aside to discuss how to best request the funds. They knew they would have to tax the landowners, but they were unable to do so because they felt it was too heavy a burden on them.

#4 The parliament decided that the country could not afford to keep the war going, and that the only way to do so was to impose a flat, universal tax of four or five groats per person. They must have realized that even with the relatively new affluence of some parts of the English lower classes, this was a grotesque hike.