Historian Dan Jones traces the rise and collapse of the Plantagenets, the medieval family that ruled England for over three hundred years and produced some of its most violent kings. Across four episodes, Jones moves through castles, cathedrals, and battlefields tied to the dynasty, from Henry II's power struggles with the church to the murder of Thomas Becket, the family infighting that pitted sons against their father, and the disputed succession that eventually tipped into civil war. Reenactments illustrate court intrigue and battlefield killings while Jones narrates on location, drawing direct lines from Plantagenet feuds to the later Wars of the Roses. The series treats the family less as a parade of monarchs and more as a case study in how personal grievances, inheritance disputes, and raw ambition shaped the English crown for centuries. It favors the bloodier, more personal episodes of the reign over ceremony, tracking betrayals, executions, and the fights over land and legitimacy that kept toppling one Plantagenet after another.