Product Description

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 England's 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 Weir's 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 Henry's rival, and most important of all, Margaret of Anjou, Henry's wife who took up her arms in her husband's cause and battled for many years in a violent man's world.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #4936 in Books
• Published on: 2009-07-02
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 480 pages

About the Author
Alison Weir lives and works in Surrey. Her books include Britain's Royal Families, The Six Wives of Henry VIII, Children of England, Eleanor of Aquitaine, Henry VIII: King and Court, Mary, Queen of Scots and, most recently, Isabella.

Customer Reviews

The Greatest history of the Wars of the Roses
Alison Weir is a great historian and in Lancaster and York: The Wars of the Roses she has left us the greatest history there is of this civil war which spanned thirty gurling years and torn two royal houses apart.

Weir begins at the source of the many claiments to the English Crown: Edward III abd his many adult sons. This was not a problem at first, she states, but in 1399, when Henry Bolingbroke, son of Edward III's third eldest son John of Gaunt, deposed Richard II and claimed the throne as Henry IV, it now showed that a bloodclaim and force were all that were needed to seize the throne, and as Weir explains, these would envoke dire conquences in the next century.

Weir succeded in mapping out a great history of a really important war that stood England on its head for a while. The Lancastrians-Henry VI, Margret of Anjou, Edward, Prince of Wales as well as the dukes of Somerset and Suffolk-as well as the Yorkists-Richard, duke of York, Edward IV, Elizabeth Woodville, and Richard III are all well placed to make their empacts on English history.

Weir succeeded brillantly. She read all the records and she made this period of English history come alive. This book was also very readable. A very well written book, and a good history