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3.86 AVERAGE
3.86 AVERAGE
challenging
emotional
informative
tense
slow-paced
Content Warnings
Minor: Torture, Violence, War
2.5 Holy heck, this was a slog to get through. You can't fault Weir on her research, that's for sure.
Review - It was a pity that it tailed off after the Battle of Tewkesbury (1471), but York had triumphed by then. Nevertheless, it would have been interesting to see Weir's take on the latter half of Edward's reign and that of Richard III. Sources are dealt with well, though the text is dry at some points. When reading about the Wars of the Roses, I prefer Sarah Gristwood's [b:Blood Sisters: The Women Behind The War Of The Roses|13498116|Blood Sisters The Women Behind The War Of The Roses|Sarah Gristwood|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1371528485s/13498116.jpg|19042847] as I think the tone is easier to read. A family tree would have been a helpful addition for those less familiar with the period than I.
General Subject/s? - History / Wars of the Roses / Plantagenets
Recommend? – Yes
Rating - 14/20
General Subject/s? - History / Wars of the Roses / Plantagenets
Recommend? – Yes
Rating - 14/20
adventurous
informative
lighthearted
relaxing
tense
medium-paced
This was a great book! I loved it. It did exactly what I wanted it to do, and filled my gap of knowledge between the Black Death/Hundred Years' War and the Tudors/Princes in the Tower of London. This is my second read by Alison Weir and I love the way she writes. It was FULL of knowledge; names, dates, events, etc. yet it wasn't dry. My only problem was it took me a while to read because it took so much attention to catch everything. It's not a book you can keep picking up and putting down (I tried to read some at work). Highly recommended for anyone interested in such a fascinating and important time in English history. By the way, Henry VI, what a dud!
I tend to avoid reading much about British history - firstly because it's a very small part of the world that only really became relevant in the last few hundred years, and secondly because there are plenty of people out there who already know it. The world doesn't need yet another person who can name all the Plantagenets but has no idea who the Sassanids were. But "The Wars of the Roses" is a very cool name for a series of civil wars, so I thought I'd give it a go (there was a bit of influence from a well-known Wars of the Roses fanfic that I've enjoyed reading, and which is now a major HBO television series).
It's hard to make history really interesting, but Alison Weir's Lancaster and York: The Wars of the Roses makes a good effort. It's well researched and notes the primary sources frequently without being overly footnotish. She makes good attempts to get inside the heads of the main protagonists - you end up with a good sense of who Margaret of Anjou, and Warwick were, not just what they did. Edward IV and Henry VI are less well-rounded, but Kings tend to be that way. The book starts out rather dry but picks up steam as it gets going - the first half took ages to read, but the second half I got through quite quickly.
But the actual wars themselves were rather pointless and depressing. There's no sense of a great historical change happening here. It's just cousins thumping each other with armies and playing Musical Thrones. Henry VI was a bit of a gumby and probably should have abdicated much earlier in favour of someone competent. Edward was a bit of a tool, bit at least he was competent. Warwick and Margaret might've made good rulers, but Warwick wasn't in line for the throne and so had to scheme and plot and switch sides all the time, and Margaret was a woman, and so had to rely on her gumby of a husband for legitimacy. And then at the end, the whole thing was rendered completely pointless by Richard (he of the Princes in the Tower) who ruined everything.
It's hard to make history really interesting, but Alison Weir's Lancaster and York: The Wars of the Roses makes a good effort. It's well researched and notes the primary sources frequently without being overly footnotish. She makes good attempts to get inside the heads of the main protagonists - you end up with a good sense of who Margaret of Anjou, and Warwick were, not just what they did. Edward IV and Henry VI are less well-rounded, but Kings tend to be that way. The book starts out rather dry but picks up steam as it gets going - the first half took ages to read, but the second half I got through quite quickly.
But the actual wars themselves were rather pointless and depressing. There's no sense of a great historical change happening here. It's just cousins thumping each other with armies and playing Musical Thrones. Henry VI was a bit of a gumby and probably should have abdicated much earlier in favour of someone competent. Edward was a bit of a tool, bit at least he was competent. Warwick and Margaret might've made good rulers, but Warwick wasn't in line for the throne and so had to scheme and plot and switch sides all the time, and Margaret was a woman, and so had to rely on her gumby of a husband for legitimacy. And then at the end, the whole thing was rendered completely pointless by Richard (he of the Princes in the Tower) who ruined everything.
I love Alison Weir's writing but this wasn't as good as some of her other pieces of work. Still worth a try!
An absolutely fantastic and endlessly fascinating recount of the first war of the roses, the dynastic struggle between House Lancaster and House York. The author takes the complex web of interwoven family and political loyalties of the struggle and brings them to life in a comprehensible and riveting fashion that is unsurpassed in other accounts.
I was torn between stars in rating this book. I love alison weir's writing and this tale of lancaster and york was exciting and interesting however some of the war scenes became a little tiresome.