Book Review: Lancaster and York; The Wars of the Roses by Alison Weir

I had been wanting to pick something by Alison Weir up for a while, having heard only good things about her as a historian, so with the current hype surrounding The Wars of the Roses I thought Weir's account of the topic would be a timely choice. Below the cut: a review.

Weir begins the book in the time of Edward III, explaining that, to many historians, this is where the Wars Of The Roses truly begins. Indeed, the question of whether Henry VI was the rightful king, or whether the acclaimed Richard Plantagenet, Duke of York, had a better claim, became central to the Wars.

What Weir presents in this book is a chronological assessment and narrative of the Wars, including detailed accounts of the major battles.

The only minor issue I had with Weir's book was a seeming bias against Margaret of Anjou. I confess to knowing little about her, and agree with Weir's assessment that Margaret generally acted unwisely and without thinking when attempting to win back her throne, such as in her concession of Berwick to the Scottish and Normandy to the French, both of which angered the English population. I also see how her apparent manipulation of Henry VI into appointing ministers sympathetic to herself and her court faction can easily be seen as self-aggrandizement and a furthering of her own power. However, it occurs to me that Margaret of Anjou could also be seen as a feminist icon, a woman far ahead of her time in terms of her mobility and influence in the court. Of course the English population did not like her from the word go; she was, after all, French. But I think it is possible to see Margaret as making the best of a bad situation. She was lumbered with a royal husband who wavered between complete incompetence and total loss of all mental capacity, and as such she was required to fulfil the dual role of King and Queen in order to protect the rights of the only heir to the throne, their son Edward. I do think that at times Weir leans towards casting Margaret of Anjou as the villain leading a corrupt court party, whilst others may see her differently.

One of the aspects I particularly liked was the occasional references to exhumations of the bodies of key figures in the Wars, including Henry V and Henry VI. The archaeological evidence found with Henry VI's body -- exhumed and examined in 1911 -- is particularly telling; he was allegedly found with a smashed-in skull, his remaining hair matted with blood. This truly is overwhelming evidence in the debate on what truly happened to Henry VI. Whilst it has been generally agreed, both by contemporary sources (mainly due to the fact that Henry VI mysteriously died on the very same night that Edward IV reclaimed the throne and rode back into London) and modern historians, the cause of death is sometimes debated. It leads me to question why qualified historians such as Philippa Gregory suggest that Henry VI was smothered or suffocated.

Overall I was very pleased with this book. It made for a detailed and well-researched analysis of The Wars Of The Roses, made all the more enjoyable when compared to the often fictitious presentation of the period on TV at the current time. I can only hope that more people decide to delve further into the facts behind The White Queen, as it is almost more compelling than what is shown on screen.