Weir - Lancaster And York: the Wars of the Roses

Contents

Alison Weir lives and works in Surrey. Her non-fiction books include The Six Wives of Henry VIII, Children of England, Eleanor of Aquitaine, Henry VIII: King and Court, Mary, Queen of Scots, Katherine Swynford and Elizabeth of York. Her novels include Innocent Traitor, The Lady Elizabeth and A Dangerous Inheritance.

The war between the houses of Lancaster and York for the throne of England was characterised by treachery, deceit and at St Albans, Blore Hill and Towton some of the bloodiest and most dramatic battles on Englands soil. Between 1455 and 1487 the royal coffers were bankrupted and the conflict resulted in the downfall of the houses of Lancaster and York and the emergence of the illustrious Tudor dynasty.

Alison Weirs lucid and gripping account focuses on the human side of history, on the people and personalities involved in the conflict. At the centre of the book stands Henry VI, the pious king whose mental instability led to political chaos, Richard Plantagenet, Duke of York and Henrys rival, and, most important of all, Margaret of Anjou, Henrys wife, who took up her arms in her husbands cause and battled for many years in a violent mans world.

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Epub ISBN: 9781446449172
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Copyright Alison Weir 1995
Cover: detail from portrait of Richard III by English School. Society of Antiquaries of London/Bridgeman Art Library

Alison Weir has asserted her right to be identified as the author of this Work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988

First published in Great Britain by Jonathan Cape in 1995
First published by Vintage in 2009
Pimlico edition 1998

www.penguin.co.uk/vintage

A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

This book is dedicated to
a much-loved uncle,
Rankin Lorimer Weir,
in commemoration of his ninetieth birthday.

It is also dedicated
in loving memory of
his beloved wife
Dorothy Weir.

And also to
my godson
David Jonathan Marston
on the occasion of his twenty-first birthday.

These matters be kings games, as it were stage plays, and for the more part played upon scaffolds.

Sir Thomas More

What about the getting of the garland, keeping it, losing and winning it again, it hath cost more English blood than twice the winning of France.

William Shakespeare, King Richard III

PLATES

Richard II, portrait by an unknown artist in Westminster Abbey c. 1395 (by courtesy of the Dean and Chapter of Westminster)

John of Gaunt, late sixteenth-century portrait attributed to Luca Cornelli (by kind permission of the Duke of Beaufort; photograph by Peter A. Harding)

Henry IV, electrotype of the tomb effigy in Canterbury Cathedral (National Portrait Gallery, London)

Henry V, late fifteenth-century portrait by an unknown artist in the Royal Collection ( 1995 Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II)

Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester (kneeling before the Man of Sorrows), from a Book of Psalms made for him c. 142030 (by permission of the British Library: Royal 2 B I f. 8)

Cardinal Henry Beaufort, tomb effigy in Winchester Cathedral (by courtesy of the Dean and Chapter of Winchester)

Henry VI, portrait by an unknown artist c. 1530 (National Portrait Gallery, London)

Henry VI, late sixteenth/early seventeenth-century portrait by an unknown artist (National Portrait Gallery, London)

Ren, Duke of Anjou, portrait miniature by Nicholas Froment from the Matheron Diptych, c. 1476, in the Louvre Museum, Paris ( photograph R.M.N.)

Margaret of Anjou, portrait medallion by Pietro de Milano, c. 14623 (by courtesy of the Trustees of the Victoria and Albert Museum)

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)

The Falcon and Fetterlock badge of the mediaeval dukes of York, from the gates of Henry VIIs Chapel in Westminster Abbey (by courtesy of the Dean and Chapter of Westminster)

Jack Cades rebellion of 1450, from Les Chroniques de France, c. 1500 (by permission of the British Library: Royal 20 E 111 f.28)

Plucking the Red and White Roses in the Temple Gardens, 1910, by Henry A. Payne, House of Commons East Corridor ( RCHME Crown Copyright)

Ludlow Castle ( RCHME Crown Copyright)

Interior of Westminster Hall, looking south, c. 1925 (Farmer Collection, House of Lords Record Office)

Edward IV, portrait by an unknown artist c. 1530 (National Portrait Gallery, London)

Elizabeth Wydville, portrait by an unknown artist c. 1465 (by courtesy of the President and Fellows of Queens College, Cambridge)

Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick, portrayed as a weeper on a tomb in St Marys Church (photograph by Marianne Majerus)

George, Duke of Clarence and his family, from the Rous Roll c. 14835 (by permission of the British Library: Add.48976 figs. 5860)