But England in the 1440s was especially rich in public disaffection, as it was beset by increasingly serious political problems. Even the greatest kings in history have known that somewhere in their kingdom, a drunkard is probably railing against them. There is nothing new about grumbling against authority. And all through the events, Jones intersperses historical reconstruction with neatly-chosen quotes and moments that serve to illustrate his larger societal backdrop: ![]() Jones's new book follows the violent and twisting series of events that stretched from Agincourt to Bosworth and saw the venerable – and venal – old Plantagenet dynasty serially self-destruct, leaving a waiting and watchful young Lancaster heir, Henry Tudor, squaring off against the last Yorkist king, the treacherous Richard III. ![]() Rather, this was a vicious and at times barely comprehensible period of deep political instability, which stemmed ultimately from a collapse in royal authority and English rule in France under Henry VI. ![]() He steadily cautions his readers against the primary-color reductions this subject has so often elicited from writers:Īll the evil of the fifteenth century was not embodied in a villainous Richard III, any more than the marriage of Henry VII and Elizabeth of York provided instant salvation. But a much bigger part of the success of this particular The Wars of the Roses derives from Jones's rich complement of talents: he's a shrewd researcher, a very gamesome writer, and, perhaps most importantly, a resolutely objective historian. ![]() Of course, part of this is almost inevitable: the rampaging dynastic struggle between the houses of York and Lancaster known as the Wars of the Roses is so inherently dramatic that it would take a fairly doltish writer to screw it up completely. The Wars of the Roses: The Fall of the Plantagenets and the Rise of the Tudorsby Dan JonesViking, 2014 The Wars of the Roses, young historian Dan Jones's follow-up to his remarkably good popular history of the Plantagenet dynasty, is, mirabile dictu, even more enjoyable than its predecessor.
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