Product Description

In this widely acclaimed biography, Bertram Wolffe challenges the traditional view of Henry VI as an unworldly, innocent, and saintly monarch and offers instead a finely-drawn but critical portrait of an ineffectual ruler. Drawing on widespread contemporary evidence, Wolffe describes the failures of Henry's long reign from 1422 to 1471, which included the collapse of justice, the loss of the French territories, and the final disintegration of his government. He argues that the posthumous cult of Henry was promoted by Henry VII as a way of excusing his uncle's political failures while enhancing the image of the dynasty. This edition includes a new preface by John Watts that discusses the book and its place in the evolving literature.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #178089 in Books
• Published on: 2001-04-02
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 432 pages

Review
"A brilliant biography that brings us as near as we are ever likely to come to this elusive personality." Sunday Times "A powerful, compulsively readable portrait." Observer "Much learning, skillfully deployed as here, evokes pleasure as well as admiration." R.L. Storey, Times Literary Supplement"

Observer
"A powerful, compulsively readable portrait."

R.L. Storey, Times Literary Supplement
"Much learning, skillfully deployed as here, evokes pleasure as well as admiration."

Customer Reviews

A murdered saint or a dreadful ruler? an impressive re-assessment of the third Lancastrian king
Henry VI is the youngest monarch ever to have ascended the English throne. He was the only English king to have been acknowledges by the French as rightfully King of France. His reign was the third longest since the Norman conquest. He came close to being declared a saint.

Was he the unworldly, innocent, and saintly monarch as history seems to remember him or was he first of all an ineffectual ruler during whose rule his country descended into chaos? The Wars of the Roses began in full during Henry's reign. Where does the legend come from?
In whose interest was legend?

This masterly study, offering informative details, examines the entire span of the king's reign, from the death of Henry V in 1422, when Henry was only nine months old, to the period of his insanity at the beginning of the Wars of the Roses and his dethronement in 1461, preceding his murder ten years later.

This is a classic re-assessment of the third Lancastrian king and its reading is for anyone interested in the history of fifteenth-century England an essential. It offers much food for thought. No easy reading, but gratifying and getting close to this elusive king and his time. A murdered saint or a dreadful ruler? Well, maybe he was both and maybe one could not be the first without being the second....