Shakespeare's rarely performed and woefully underrated revisionist history of the king who was forced to enact the Magna Carta explores one of Shakespeare's great obsessions -- the nature of good government and the ethics of rule. Thirteenth-century politics prove as complex and unnerving as those of today, as the men and women of the Plantagenet dynasty manage to wreak havoc upon the nations of Britain and France -- as well as each other -- in epic fashion. This fascinating tale of the past provides sage cautionary messages for our own time.