R.L. Storey

All history books suffer from the problem of how academic to be. There is no right course. But there are wrong courses. And this book avoids all of them.

It is one of the classic studies of the early stages of the Wars of the Roses, widely cited in more recent books on the subject. And yet, it is a good read. The primary subject is, of course, the period between the conquests of Henry V (died 1422) and the overthrow of Henry VI (1461), and it details just why Henry's government was so incredibly bad. The Shakespearean explanation -- that it was all the after-effects of the overthrow of Richard II -- is of course absurd; Henry V had done just fine. Henry VI was... different. It's not just that he was mentally defective (although, by the end, he was). It's that he was too easily swayed, too malleable, too passive-aggressive. He let problems slide, then proposed some foolish and yet draconian solution. People ceased to trust the government, and so they took it into their own hands.

The result was of course that Henry lost his throne. In the past, when that had happened, there had usually been a logical heir to whom to pass the throne. Not in Henry's case; his son was also the son of the detestable Margaret of Anjou, and besides, by the time Henry was murdered, his son Edward was also dead. So the overthrow of Henry meant the overthrow of Lancaster. This book does a fine job of telling an excruciating story well.… (més)

1314 The End of the House of Lancaster, by R. L. Storey (20 Jan 1975) Because I wanted to read more on the Wars of the Roses I checked the bibliography thereon in the Encyclopedia Britannica. It said this title was the "best book" on the Wars of the Roses. If it is, they aren't too good. The author is "Assistant Keeper of the Public Record Office of England" and so his book is crammed with details from those records. But as far as clarifying the issues and the wars, the book did little for me. It only goes up to Edward's accession, which he dated as March 4, 1461. His father had placed his hand on the throne in 1460, but was not supported. Henry VI came back in 1470, but Edward lasted till 9 Apr 1483. I simply thought this book rather boring, so I doubt I'll read more on 15th century England, I said after finishing the book. (But I have not stayed away from the period. On 3 Apr 1992 I read The Last of the Barons, by Edward Bulwer-Lytton (Lord Lytton) which is a novel but sticks to the facts quite closely and is a most enjoyable book. And on 7 Jan 1997 I read Alison Weir's The Wars of the Roses, which I found clearly written and well-researched, but quite detailed. And on April 7, 1997, I read Desmond Seward's book entitled The Wars of the Roses Through the Lives of Five Men and Women of the Fifteenth Century, but found it too diffused to be as good as I expected. But this entry is supposed to be about what I read 30 years ago so I won't go on about other readings in 15th century English history I have done since 1975.)… (més)