The Plantagenet era lasted from 1154-1485, encompassed 15 monarchs, the Wars of the Roses, the Hundred Years war, the Black Death, the Peasant's Revolt and much more.
The first King was Henry II, the son of Mathilda who briefly ruled England but lost her crown in a short civil war. Her brother, the legitimate heir had died in the White Ship and she claimed the throne although her cousin Stephen claimed and won the throne. Henry reformed the judicial system, but was also responsible for the death of Thomas A'Beckett.
Henry married Eleanor of Aquitaine, one of the most powerful women of her era. Two of her sons became King - Richard the Lionheart who distinguished himself as a warrior and crusader and then the hapless King John. It was during his reign that Magna Carta was signed and that was the era when most Robin Hood legends were based. After King John came Henry III who was crowned at the age of 9 and he was succeeded by Edward I who waged plenty of wars (generally successfully) on Wales and Scotland and the modern UK union began to take shape. Edward II was an ineffective king, losing Scotland to Robert the Bruce at Bannockburn and eventually was overthrown in a plot orchestrated by his estranged wife and her lover Roger Mortimer. Rumour has it he was murdered at Berkeley castle by means of a red-hot poker inserted anally. His son, Edward III had his mother imprisoned and Mortimer executed. The Hundred Years war began under Edward III as the French tried to take back some English colonial possessions in France. The early part of this conflict saw great victories for England at Crecy and Poitiers, it also saw the arrival in England of the plague (in 1348/9) and the subsequent wiping out of much of the population. This led to the breakdown in the Feudal System which tied the peasantry to the land.
Unfortunately Edward's son, the Black Prince predeceased him and at his death the crown went to Richard II, another of the weaker kings who was used by guardians such as John of Gaunt. To pay for the on-going wars with France a poll tax was instituted and that led in 1391 to the Peasant's Revolt and by common consent the peasants were revolting. The unpopular Richard II was deposed by his son Henry IV and he was soon quietly murdered.
Henry IV was a sickly man who faced a series of disputes in Wales which wore him down to the point where he died and was succeeded by his son Henry V who had cut his military teeth in fighting the Welsh. Henry V was always painted in profile, looking to the left. In one of the scraps with the Welsh an arrow pierced his facial armour and embedded itself in his right cheekbone leaving a scar. Henry V went into military history for invading France and thanks to the French carelessly forgettimg the lessons learnt at Crecy and Poitiers succumbed again to the longbow at Agincourt. The consequence of the victory was that Henry V married the daughter of the French King (Charles who was mad - well who can blame him after the loss at Agincourt despite home ground advantage, fresh troops and an overwhelming numerical superiority). Unfortunately dysentry did for Henry before this came about.
A strong leader was needed at this time - the French were none too keen on seeing an English king succeed Charles and instead of Henry V they got his nine month son Henry VI who was controlled by several regents. Joan of Arc and taxation and a breakdown in law and order led to Henry VI having a mental breakdown. Temporarily he was replaced by Richard, Duke of York. Unfortunately having had a taste of being King in all but name and with legitimate grounds to being King himself he refused to give up power and thus began the Wars of the Roses.
For the next thirty years the Houses of Lancaster and York fought a series of bloody battles - one at Towton in 1461 was the bloodiest in English history with an estimated 28,000 men getting killed in one day, that represented around 1% of the English population at that time. The battle was fought in a snowstorm and featured two sets of archers hammering the ldaylights out of each other. It seems that little quarter was asked or given, despite being outnumbered the Yorkists who also had the worse land triumphed thanks to having the wind in their favour. The ensuing rout continued on the next day. More men fell at this battle than on day one of the Somme in 1916.
Edward VI therefore became King and at his death the crown passed to his son Edward V, or at least it would have done but their uncle, Richard III had him and his brother imprisoned in the Tower of London and they were never seen again. That was 1482, Richard ruled for just three years, losing his crown at Bosworth in 1485, a horse, a horse, my kingdom for a horse as Shakespeare somewhat over dramatically described his final moments and so began the Tudor era.