Thomas Penn - The Brothers York: An English Tragedy

Thomas Penns bestselling Winter King was a Book of the Year in nine different publications, and was awarded the H. W. Fisher Best First Biography Prize. He has a PhD in late fifteenth and early sixteenth-century history from Clare College, Cambridge, and writes for, among others, the Guardian and the London Review of Books.

In the course of writing this book I have met with immense generosity from the community of fifteenth-century scholars: my debt to their work, and to the work of historians past, will be evident. Ive benefited greatly from conversations and correspondence with Jim Bolton, Alex Brondarbit, Helen Castor, Linda Clark, Ralph Griffiths, Sam Harper and David Rundle. Rosemary Horrox, Joanna Laynesmith, Tony Pollard, Carole Rawcliffe and John Watts, equally generous with their time, have all read parts of the manuscript and offered invaluable and thought-provoking advice. So too have Sean Cunningham and James Ross, to whom I owe a particular debt: their insight and friendship have been a constant source of illumination.

Im grateful to Hugh Doherty for his enthusiasm and erudition; to Barrie Cook, in the British Museums Department of Coins and Medals, for talking me through Edward IVs recoinages; and to Turi King for discussing with me her ground-breaking work on the genetic analysis of Richard III.

Thanks are also due to the staff of the British Library, The National Archives, the Corporation of London Records Office, Cambridge University Library, the Bodleian Library, and the Archives du Nord in Lille. I want also to acknowledge three scholars, Cora Scofield, Charles Ross and, again, Rosemary Horrox, whose landmark studies of Edward IV and Richard III are crucial to an understanding of the two reigns spanned by this book.

At Penguin Press, Im especially grateful to Stefan McGrath, Stuart Proffitt, Pen Vogler, Rosie Glaisher, Ingrid Matts, Dahmicca Wright, Jim Stoddart, Jon Parker, Ellen Davies, Chloe Currens, Richard Duguid and Lou Willder. Rebecca Lee has been a model of calm. Id also like to thank Charlotte Ridings for her eagle-eyed copyediting and Cecilia Mackay for her deft picture research. At Simon & Schuster US, Bob Bender has been encouraging, enthusiastic and exceptionally forbearing. My agents Catherine Clarke and Anna Stein have been a constant source of clear-eyed advice and reassurance.

I am deeply indebted to my editor and publisher Simon Winder, for his perspicacity and boundless patience, and for his uncanny ability to say the right thing at the right time.

My sons Guy and Louis fill me with joy. They surprise and delight me every single day, and keep me going. And this book could not have been written without Kate, who inspires and guides me: I owe her everything.

Finally, I want to thank my parents, who have given me so much. This book is for them.

Chambres des Comptes de Lille, Srie B Archives

Additional: 6113, 10099, 18268A, 18669, 46455, 48031A, 48976, 48988, 54782, Ch. 19808; Cotton Julius B XI; Cotton Vespasian C XIV, C XVI; Harleian: 69, 543, 1628, 7353, Ch. 58 F 49; Royal MS 17 D xv

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The Babees Book The Bokes of Nurture of Hugh Rhodes and John Russell, ed. F. J. Furnivall, EETS o.s. 32, London, 1868.

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A Brief Latin Chronicle, in J. Gairdner, ed. Three Fifteenth-Century Chronicles, London, 1880, pp. 16485.

British Library Harleian Manuscript 433, ed. R. E. Horrox and P. W. Hammond, 4 vols., London, 197983.

Buck, George, The History of King Richard the Third, ed. A. N. Kincaid, repr. edn, Gloucester, 1982.

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Calendar of Documents Relating to Scotland, ed. Joseph Bain, 4 vols., Edinburgh, 18818.

Calendar of Entries in the Papal Registers relating to Great Britain and Ireland. Papal Letters, vols. 112, London, 18931933.

Calendar of Letter-Books of the City of London: Letter-Book L, ed. R. R. Sharpe, London, 1912.

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Calendar of Plea and Memoranda Rolls, 13241482, ed. A. H. Thomas and P. E. Jones, 6 vols., Cambridge, 192461.

Calendar of State Papers, Milan, vol. I, 13591618, ed. A. B. Hinds, London, 1912.

Calendar of State Papers and manuscripts relating to English affairs, existing in the archives and collections of Venice