You get tired of one name: de Coucy. The book should have been titled "Enguerrand VII, Lord of Coucy." I slogged through it. Seems he and his issue were everywhere at once, to quote an old AbFab episode: "...beside the rich and famous, behind the rich and famous, under the rich and famous..." When Barbara Tuchman could get off her favorite subject of his lordship, she would get back to the 14th century and was quite entertaining and informative about how you would live your life in that time. Yes, she used him as her north star to keep the book anchored, but you pretty much got tired of him halfway through the book and wished Edward had cut off his head or the Black Death had got him. Had the book been advertised as a history of the de Coucy family instead of a history of the 14th century I would have been more forgiving. She really needs to retitle this book.