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.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |