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The Wars of the Roses: The Fall of the Plantagenets and the Rise of the Tudors

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Jones did an excellent job of explaining just how Henry VI’s mental instability led to the generation long civil war. Like recent scholarship, Jones roots the cause of conflict squarely in the ineffectual kingship of the last Lancastrian ruler. It is forbidden to copy anything for publication elsewhere without written permission from the copyright holder.

After Richard’s death at Bosworth this is exactly what Tudor did, and in an inspired move he chose as his badge the red rose, which had vague Lancastrian connections, uniting it with the famous white rose of York, to create a symbol of national reconciliation. Whatever his arguments for seizing the crown – almost uniformly specious – the new Yorkist king’s brutal power-grab and the dreadful fate met by the Princes in the Tower created a huge faction of implacable opponents who preferred to see anyone but Richard in charge. Furthermore, the red rose was never the official symbol of the Lancastrian royals, and the white rose -although it did become for the Yorks- wasn’t the only device they used. Tautly structured, elegantly written, and finely attuned to the values and sensibilities of the age, The Wars of the Roses is probably the best introduction to the conflict currently in print.This entry was posted in Book review, Edward IV, Elizabeth of York, Elizabeth Woodville, Henry VI, Henry VII, Lancaster, Plantagenet, Richard II, Tudor, Wars of the Roses, York and tagged . We see this in a lot of other monarchs throughout history, ones who are thrust into the role of ruler at a young age and never recover from it.

I found this book a joy to read, not only because of its narrative style but also because it manages to present a clear narrative of a confusing and turbulent era. I knew of them and their history, but I had never connected it to the power struggles created during the Wars of the Roses. While Edward was accustomed to fighting on foot, Warwick was said by one chronicler to prefer to run with his men into battle before mounting on horseback, “and if he found victory inclined to his side, he charged boldly among them; if otherwise he took care of himself in time and provided for his escape.As he grew older, he became more paranoid apparently, and a few somewhat harmless souls ended up being accused of treason and losing their heads. If you're a fan of Game of Thrones or The Tudors then Dan Jones' swashbucklingly entertaining slice of medieval history will be right up your alley. The early stages were about the Duke of York trying to replace the ministers of the Lancastrian King; he probably was genuinely loyal to the monarch himself at the start. When Richard III overthrew Edward V, and the boy king and his young brother disappeared from the Tower in the summer of 1483, he was following the example set in the overthrow and death of Henry VI.

To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. After Richard’s death at Wakefield, his son Edward takes up the claim to eventually defeats Henry’s supporters to become Edward IV.

Perkin Warbeck pretended to be Edward IV’s younger son, Prince Richard; he was sponsored by Edward IV’s sister Margaret, Duchess of Burgundy, and raised an army that disrupted the whole of south-west England before he was captured in 1497.

Then there are figures who stand on their own who worked behind the scenes, like Warwick “The Kingmaker”, Margaret Beaufort, Owen and Jasper Tudor, the Princes in the Tower, and the ultimate victor, Henry VII. They did not hive off into dynastic factions, but stuck together, kept the peace and attempted to preserve a normal system of royal government. In normal circumstances, being third cousin from one sitting king and third cousin twice removed from his rival would mean that Henry Tudor would have virtually no chance of becoming king.But perhaps the greatest achievement of this book is the way it makes ‘recent’ and innovative scholarship accessible.

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