The Wars of the Roses - Alison Weir [0]
A complicated story brilliantly told.”
—Kirkus Reviews
“Elegantly written, revealingly detailed, and effortlessly narrated … Splendid work … Among her gifts, Weir has the two strengths essential to the historian: She writes with equal command about people as individuals and about the nature of power. Throughout, she is a canny and engaging guide to the unspeakably tangled workings of late-medieval political power. Military might, bloodlines, family alliances, regional loyalties, charisma, theatrics and image, revenge, greed, ruthlessness, and expediency all operated in tortuous formations and are here meticulously opened to scrutiny.”
—Boston Globe
“[A] perfectly focused and beautifully unfolded account.”
—Booklist (starred review)
“Stimulating … A well-written, entertaining narrative.”
—Library Journal
A Ballantine Book
Published by The Random House Publishing Group
Copyright © 1995 by Alison Weir
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. Published in the United States by The Random House Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc., New York.
Originally published as Lancaster & York in Great Britain in 1995 by Jonathan Cape, Random House, UK Ltd., London.
Ballantine and colophon are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc.
www.ballantinebooks.com
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 96-96058
eISBN: 978-0-307-80685-7
v3.1
Contents
Cover
Title Page
Copyright
Illustrations
Introduction
1 The Riches of England
Part I: The Origins of the Conflict
2 A Race of Magnates
3 The Usurping Dynasty
4 The Flower of Christian Chivalry
5 The Child King
6 A Simple and Upright Man
7 ‘A Queen Not Worth Ten Marks’
8 The Daisy Flower
9 Murder at Sea
10 John Amend-All
11 ‘A Great Division between York and Lancaster’
12 ‘A Sudden and Thoughtless Fright’
Part II: The Wars of the Roses
13 The Wars of the Roses
14 An Uneasy Peace
15 ‘A Great and Strong Labour’d Woman’
16 The Paper Crown
17 The Sun in Splendour
18 The Bloody Meadow
19 ‘A Person Well Worthy To Be King’
20 Fugitives
21 ‘Now Take Heed What Love May Do’
22 Secret Negotiations
23 The Queen and M. de Warwick
24 The Readeption of Henry VI
25 ‘The Perfect Victory’
26 To Tewkesbury and the Tower
Simplified Genealogical Tables
Photo Inserts
Dedication
Acknowledgements
Bibliography
Other Books by This Author
About the Author
Illustrations
PLATES
1 Richard II, portrait by an unknown artist in Westminster Abbey c. 1395 (by courtesy of the Dean and Chapter of Westminster)
2 John of Gaunt, late sixteenth-century portrait attributed to Luca Cornelli (by kind permission of the Duke of Beaufort; photograph by Peter A. Harding)
3 Henry IV, electrotype of the tomb effigy in Canterbury Cathedral (National Portrait Gallery, London)
4 Henry V, late fifteenth-century portrait by an unknown artist in the Royal Collection (© 1995 Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II)
5 Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester (kneeling before the Man of Sorrows), from a Book of Psalms made for him c. 1420–30 (by permission of the British Library: Royal 2 B I f.8)
6 Cardinal Henry Beaufort, tomb effigy in Winchester Cathedral (by courtesy of the Dean and Chapter of Winchester)
7 Henry VI, portrait by an unknown artist c.1530 (National Portrait Gallery, London)
8 Henry VI, late sixteenth/early seventeenth-century portrait by an unknown artist (National Portrait Gallery, London)
9 René, Duke of Anjou, portrait miniature by Nicholas Froment from the Matheron Diptych, c. 1476, in the Louvre Museum, Paris (© photograph R.M.N.)
10 Margaret of Anjou, portrait medallion by Pietro de Milano, c. 1462–3 (by courtesy of the Trustees of the Victoria and Albert Museum)
11 Richard, Duke of York, from a stained-glass window in the Trinity Chapel at St John the Baptist, Cirencester (by kind permission of the Vicar and Churchwardens of Cirencester Parish Church; photograph by Bryan Berkeley)
12 The Falcon and Fetterlock badge of the mediaeval dukes of York, from the gates of Henry VII’s Chapel