Book Description
"The reader is left with the haunting sensation that perhaps the good a man does can live after him--especially in the hands of a dedicated historian."
SAN DIEGO UNION
In this stirring historical novel, Sharon Kay Penman redeems Richard III from his villainous role in history as the hulking, evil hunchback. This dazzling recreation of his life is filled with the sights and sounds of battle, and the passions of the highborn. Most of all, it brings to life a gifted man whose greatest sin was that he held principles too firmly for the times in which he lived, and loved too deeply to survive love's loss.
Customer Reviews:
couldn't put it down.......2007-09-16
I'm not a fan of historical fiction. I picked this up cheap somewhere and it sat around for a year or two before I dove in. Hesitant to start, I couldn't put it down once I got going. It was one of those "you don't want it to end books".
I've read a fair amount about the Wars of Roses (time frame of this novel) and felt like I was getting a great story and a re-cap of good history to boot. I'm not an authority but the history seems fairly spot-on. The author has some notes regarding her few changes at the book's end.
One sided? Yes. She's a Richard fan, no doubt. I lean toward the Richard camp anyway. I don't agree 100% with a few things but that's ok. The story works and maybe she is right about all of it. You'll like the either way. On more than one occasion I found myself wanting to jump in the story and lend a hand (as if I was could!). It gets that exciting. The main characters are well developed and to be fair, you heart will go out the Lancastrian as well as the Yorkist.
If your interested in the Wars of the Roses, medieval history, or good old family warfare (this beats Godfather stuff any day), go for it.
Great Revisionist History.......2007-09-03
A thoroughly enjoyable and enlightening read. I love the way she makes the characters come alive. No cardboard cut outs here! By making over Richard, one gets a more balanced picture of what might have happened. The supporting cast--Buckingham, Hastings, Elizabeth, etc.--are well drawn, too, and the complexity of the period is brought out in an exciting way. Loved it!
Fabulous, thorough, historically accurate novel.......2007-06-26
Though a novel, THE SUNNE IN SPLENDOUR accurately reflects the times (approx. 1459-1485). The story is sympathetic toward Richard III, but it is less romanticized than some other fiction in this category.
If memory serves (I read the book awhile ago.), it treats the disappearance of the princes as a murder - one committed by the Duke of Buckingham without Richard's knowledge or consent. I think this scenario is unlikely, but the work is fiction, and no one knows what happened for certain.
While the novel centers around Richard, readers also will learn about Edward IV, who reigned during most of the time period covered by the book. You will also learn about the disputes between the Houses of York and Lancaster, as well as the role of the French, and to a lesser extent, the role of Burgundy during the Wars of the Roses.
Penman is an awesome storyteller - strong character development, credible blend of fact and fiction, engrossing writing style.
The best of Penman's fabulous historical fiction.......2007-05-17
I love all of Penman's historical fiction, and I think this is the best one. What more can I say...it's in a class all its own.
Excellent writer; Excellent story; not a single dull page.......2007-05-17
This was my first time to read Sharon Kay Penman. She's the best. The other reviews will tell you about the story. I'm just wanting to brag on the writer. This was her first novel which is set in 15th century England. Next she wrote a trilogy about 13th century England and Wales, Here Be Dragons, Falls the Shadow, and The Reckoning. They should be read in that order. I hope this review is helpful. I look forward to reading all of Sharon's books.
Book Description
Founder of the Tudor dynasty, Henry VII was a crucial figure in English history. In this acclaimed study of the king`s life and reign, the distinguished historian S. B. Chrimes explores the circumstances surrounding Henry`s acquisition of the throne, examines the personnel and machinery of government, and surveys the king`s social, political, and economic policies, law enforcement, and foreign strategy. This edition of the book includes a new critical introduction and bibliographical updating by George Bernard.
Customer Reviews:
Underappreciated King given a worthy biography.......2004-07-26
Professor Chrimes has splendidly captured the life and reign of a sovereign traditionally overlooked in English history. From his bittersweet youth through a climactic battlefield victory against Richard III to nearly a quarter century of stable rule, Henry Tudor's intelligence, cunning and administrative abilities are convincingly and thoughtfully portrayed.
A domestic, tender side of the King is even shown as he comforts Queen Elizabeth after the death of their firstborn son, Prince Arthur.
This is a worthy entry in the Yale Series and a must for any serious Tudor historian.
Customer Reviews:
More fiction than history.......2007-01-31
What a waste of my time and money! This is the authosr's second book that I read, and I beleive the last. If you like historical fiction this is not for you. I don't think the characters are well developed, she had a wonderful piece of history to work on and did not do it justice. As someone wrote here before maybe the author was influenced by Hollywood because the explosions and the involvement of women of the time ( especially a princess ) on the "action packed" part is somewhat unbelievable. Sometimes the book made me feel it was written for teens.
Good twist to the old Tower Tale.......2006-09-08
3.5 stars
Ms. Maxwell's take on what happened to the two sons of Edward IV who disappeared from the Tower of London shortly after Richard III "usurped" the crown from the eldest of them adds a clever layer to the two most commonly told versions of this story (that Richard III had them murdered, or that he was innocent & uninvolved and the Duke of Buckingham did it in attempt to gain the crown for himself).
I absolutely love the possibility of Margaret Beaufort's involvement which Maxwell has added in this story. Her ambitiousness, political machniations and involvement in intrigue have been well documented. It's entirely plausable to see her as the pupeteer behind Buckingham... however, other aspects of Maxwell's take on how she and Buckingham may have been involved are completely far-fetched. This story provides a "happy ending" to a tale that simply could not have ended so. In writing it as thus, Maxwell pushes the reader beyond the bounds of believability and left this particular one feeling quite disappointed after reading 7/8 of the story only to find a Hollywood ending complete with explosions.
Maxwell relies on an overly used formula to set the stage for the story. The main character, Nell Caxton, is uncommonly educated for a woman of her time, has maintained a childhood friendship with Princess Elizabeth and thus has access to Royal circles, and yet is so likeable and street smart that she is also friends with every street-dwelling pauper and prostitute in the vacinity of Westminster. Nell's cleverness also opens doors to romance with a man of the court, a position as tutor to the young king-to-be, and an appointment as scribe to Margaret Beaufort. Nell has a surprising amount of unchaperoned time, much of which she manages to spend with her also-strangely-unchaperoned princess friend. As one would expect, the girls even get to sneak around undetected disguised as young men.
Despite the kitsch formula and over-the-top ending, the book is entertaining. The story of Richard of York / Richard III and his ascention to the throne and coinciding disappearance of the Princes in the Tower has intrigued the public for 500+ years. Maxwell has contributed a smart, mostly plausable and formerly unexplored possible answer to the mystery.
Entertaining but flawed.......2006-08-13
This is the first book by this author that I've read. I only chose it because it has to do with Richard III and the Princes in the Tower, a mystery that has always fascinated me.
I'm not going through the storyline here, as numerous reviewers before me have already done so. The main question is, who was responsible for the disappearance of the Princes?
Ms. Maxwell's answer as to the identity of the culprit is clever and credible (psychologically and historically speaking), but the whole rescue-of-the-princes scene is such a stretch it's not believable for one second.
Also, though Ms. Maxwell did read some previous books of the subject, she didn't assimilate them very well and makes several historical mistakes, like the people in the crowd circa 1500 referring to Richard III as a hunchback. If they lived at the time, they should have known he was no such thing, that's only Shakespeare's take on it. Besides, by general accounts, Richard III was loved in his time. He was a good king for the little time he had ruling England.
She also absolves Henry VII from the crime on the grounds that he wasn't in England at the time. She obviously didn't read, or conveniently forgot, Josephine Tey's and others' theories that the Princes were alive and well when Henry Tudor took over the Tower (which was not a prison at the time, but a royal residence) and that he (supposedly) only did away with them after he took the throne. Another theory of course is that they were never murdered at all.
Being a stickler for at least some historical accuracy even in a work of historical fiction, that irked me and detracted from my enjoyment of an otherwise entertaining book. I liked Nell Caxton's romance with Lord Rivers, and the fact (which might be true) that Elizabeth of York was in love with Richard III.
The ending left one hanging, because the two friends, Nell and Bessie, tell the whole "true" story to the future Henry VIII. What good did it do? We all know he didn't lift a single finger to rehabilitate his great-uncle's memory. Actually he finished what his father had started, killing off what was left of the heirs of York. And what became of the Princes after they were rescued is also left to the reader's imagination. It would have been nice if she had hinted at the "pretender and impostor" Perkin Warbeck, who claimed to be the younger of the two princes during a rebellion under Henry VII.
All in all, I did enjoy the story but purely as a work of suspense/mystery fiction. As historical fiction, it was sadly disappointing.
A compelling look into an ages-old mystery.......2006-06-06
(This review was first published in The Historical Novels Review, Issue 34, November 2005 - ISSN 1471-7492)
The disappearance and alleged murder of Edward IV's young sons in the Tower has fueled centuries of speculation, both in fiction and nonfiction. Shakespeare was one of the first dramatists to peg the crime on Richard III, in part because the playwright lived under Elizabeth I, a Tudor. The Tudors were invested in having history record Richard III as the perpetrator, seeing as Henry VII had killed Richard in battle, founding the Tudor line. Nevertheless, a staunch cadre of Richard III defenders believes he was not to blame. The princes themselves were never seen again, and on this intriguing, if oft-explored, mystery does Robin Maxwell build her fourth novel, as told through Nell Caxton, daughter of an innovative English printer, and Princess Elizabeth (Bessie) of York, the doomed princes' sister. Maxwell has shown her skill in previous historicals, most notably her masterful The Wild Irish; here, she moves back in time to the tumultuous final days of Edward IV's reign and Richard III's usurpation of his nephew's throne. The history itself offers a compelling story line, with the added dimension of the entrepreneurial Caxton family, and we are quickly swept into the chaotic events leading to the princes' disappearance. Maxwell conjures an intelligent, credible alternative to the Richard III theory, with Nell unraveling the mystery. Nell is an engaging lead, a commoner whose educational skills and familial connections allow her to penetrate the royal circle. The tale is accessible even to English history novices, and Maxwell's scheming Buckingham, icy Elizabeth Woodville, and implacable Margaret Beaufort offer a complex glimpse into the often-lethal struggle for power at court.
To The Tower Born.......2006-03-17
This subject has always attracted controversy as to what really happened to the two princes. It is however expressed in a way which leaves the door still slightly ajar for the readers own assumption. I liked this book very much I liked the authors style of writing and the wonderful way it has been told through the eyes of two very different ladies one a royel born the other a commoner with a lasting bond of firm frienship which endures through many trials and tribulations. A great read and I highly recommend it.
Customer Reviews:
This book is alleged to be non fiction.........2007-08-09
and it is. But it is generic. It could be a fill in the blanks book. More often than not, the author has not gone from the particular to the general but rather the other way round. She employs inductive thinking.
For example - she takes all known facts about Edward IVs cildren and appliess them to Elizabeth in particular.
It's a gimmick and I don't like general fact that purports to be individualized. It is unfair to the reader who is seeking NEW information.
I gave up on it.
Average customer rating:
- Great Series
- Book Review
- Patience,Princess Catherine
- Excellent
- Patience and You Will Win
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Patience, Princess Catherine: A Young Royals Book (Young Royals)
Carolyn Meyer
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Queen's Own Fool
ASIN: 0152054472 |
Book Description
England anxiously awaits Prince Arthur's betrothed--the Spanish princess who will be its future queen. But when Arthur dies not long after the wedding, Catherine of Aragon's fate becomes uncertain. Will the king and Catherine's parents arrange a marriage with Arthur's brother, Henry, or will she return to Spain a widow? Through all this turmoil, the young princess's resolve remains unshaken: She will one day be England's queen . . . no matter how long it takes.
Customer Reviews:
Great Series.......2006-11-14
Carolyn Meyer once again does a wonderful job in telling the story this time Catherine of Aragon's as she goes from Spain to England marries Arthur and becomes a widow. It truly shows how a lady's life was completely in control in that era as Catherine patiently awaits the next step. She's in a tug of war between her father and Henry VII over her dowry. When the king dies Catherine thinks she's getting her happily ever after by marrying Henry VIII but that isn't to be when she's cast assided for another and heartbroken. She's got a real fighting spirit and very admirable.
Book Review.......2006-03-13
Princess Catherine of Aragon was one the first love of the infamous King Henry VIII during the early 1500's. She was originally betrothed at the elderly age of 17 at the time to his older brother Arthur, who died young, but since Catherine couldn't produce an heir, the rest of the royal family did not pay any attention to the foreigner who hadn't paid all her dowry in the first place. Before he became heir to the throne, the young, sweet Henry had been her only guide in the cold, dreary country, which was nothing like her Spain. Since the first day of her visit, he had talked and laughed with her, as well as teach her bits of French and English, and to Catherine was the best person possible to help her out. Though, years after Arthur's death, conditions at the castle had rapidly changed: the queen had passed away due to child birth illnesses, King Henry VII had grown older and became more violent, and gradually, the members of Princess Catalina's court had deserted her and returned to Spain, which was currently at war as a result of Queen Isabella's unexpected death. Through all of those life-rattling events, the Spanish royal was determined to marry Henry. His father noticed and because she had not completely paid the marriage dowry, he cut her allowance, which forced Catherine and her assistance workers to starve, but the foreigner still fought for what she wanted. Carolyn Meyer unmasks the true hardships of being a royal in her novel Patience, Princess Catherine.
Like other great historical fictions, Meyer blends a bit of history with love, betrayal, and greed to create a perfect teen novel that is both entertaining and educational. For example, in the beginning when Princess Catalina of Aragon arrives in her new homeland, she immediately noticed disturbing differences between the culture of Spain and England. The first women that crossed the path of her and the royal court proudly wore their make-up and hair without veils. Dona Elvira, the princess's duenna, or guardian, was astounded and tried her best to persuade Catalina to maintain the customs of home, for the sakes of her parents. Eventually, her duenna gives up when the king and Prince Henry surprisingly request that they meet before Catalina sees face to face the man she is betrothed to.
The story also works in many examples of real historical customs. Catalina and her court were used to drinking pure crystal-clear water all the time, but at a banquet celebrating the royal betrothal, they found out that the English drink more ale than water at the time. They were given around twenty glasses of ale one after another and out of politeness they finished every glass, but inside their stomachs were churning and aching. One custom that really frightened the new Princess Catherine of Whales was the waltz, a dance which all of the royals appeared to know. At home, the traditional music was based on the music presented and moving to the beat, but there every couple was stiff, yet kept a mysterious elegance
After Catherine marries Arthur, terrible events happened so quickly, the new bride was overwhelmed. First, she and her husband become seriously ill and when Catherine recovered and goes to see her husband at his chambers, his royal staff sent her away. Then one cold, windy morning in the garden, a servant told the princess that her husband was taking his last breaths of life. Minutes later the graceful young lady screamed into the air as the sun rose when the doctor announced the death of the prince. When the funeral begins, the queen tells the widow in confidence that she may be pregnant at the age of 37. Her suspicions were right, but the birth of the girl who lived for only days gave her a birth illness that killed her. Later, the king, confused and alone, asked Catherine to be his new queen. However, since she said she wanted to marry Henry VII, he cut her allowance, hoping she would return to Spain.
Life was as tough and cruel in the past for both royal and real people, but now even the hungry of today's world live better than they did. In this book, the many hardships remind us of that we take for granted.
R. Turner
Patience,Princess Catherine.......2005-11-07
this could very easily be great book but drags. The author never really gets to the great part until the very end!!!!! Good book hough.
Excellent.......2005-10-17
This book was great! I loved how you saw Catherine and Henry. They were both fun to watch and see how they interacted with each other and with the people around them. It was great to see how much historically accurate information was included. It took me about 20 pages to get into it, but once I did, I couldn't put it down. This is a GREAT book for people of all ages.
Patience and You Will Win.......2004-05-01
This is the 3rd book in the Young Royals series. This historical novel is based on Catherine of Aragon, Henry VIII's first wife. This opens in 1533, as Catherine refuses to release King Henry VIII from their marriage, renounce her title, or recognize Anne Boleyn as queen. She is imprisoned in a "moldering castle" and allowed no visitors and no contact with her daughter, Mary. This book shows Catherine reflecting on her experiences, beginning with her voyage to England at age 15 to marry Prince Arthur. Their marriage, in name only, lasted 6 months until his death in 1502. Over the next 7 years, Catherine lives with increasing poverty and decreasing prospects of marrying England's new crown prince, Henry. It shows how she hard her life was. It gives you new insight into her life. I think this book is better from 12 years and up.
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Lambert Simnel and the Battle of Stoke
Michael J. Bennett
Manufacturer: Palgrave Macmillan
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Henry VII
Alexander Grant
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ASIN: 041504037X |
Book Description
In 1491, as Machiavelli advised popes and princes and Leonardo da Vinci astonished the art world, a young man boarded a ship in Portugal bound for Ireland. He would be greeted upon arrival as the rightful heir to the throne of England. The trouble was, England already had a king.
The most intriguing and ambitious pretender in history, this elegant young man was celebrated throughout Europe as the prince he claimed to be: Richard, Duke of York, the younger of the “Princes in the Tower” who were presumed to have been murdered almost a decade earlier. Handsome, well-mannered, and charismatic, he behaved like the perfect prince, and many believed he was one. The greatest European rulers of the age—among them the emperor Maximilian, Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain, and Charles VIII of France—used him as a diplomatic pawn to their own advantage. As such, he tormented Henry VII for eight years, attempting to invade England three times. Eventually, defeated and captured, he admitted to being Perkin Warbeck, the son of a common boatman from Flanders. But was this really the truth?
Ann Wroe, a historian and storyteller of the first rank, delves into the secret corners of the late medieval world to explore both the elusive nature of identity and the human propensity for deception. In uncovering the mystery of Perkin Warbeck, Wroe illuminates not only a life but an entire world trembling on the verge of discovery.
From the Hardcover edition.
Customer Reviews:
So promising, so ultimately disappointing.......2006-10-29
When I first saw the synopsis of this book, I was very excited. The mystery of Perkin Warbeck (was he or wasn't he the younger of the Princes in the Tower?) has one that has always intrigued me. Besides, being a staunch Ricardian who firmly believes that Richard III is innocent of his nephews's murder, I thought to myself, if there's even a possibility that Perkin WAS Richard, Duke of York, then it goes to prove that the Princes in the Tower were not murdered at all, by their wicked uncle or anyone else (theories abound on who that someone else may have been, or if there ever was a double murder).
On that last point I very quickly found out that Ms. Wroe thinks no such thing. In the first pages she describes Richard III as having been cut down "like a dog" (when in reality he fought bravely against overwhelming odds due to great treason, and his death caused a "great heaviness" in York and the North). That was the first disappointment. Still, it was moot to the story of Perkin himself, so I ploughed on.
Well, you do need to hang in there tight, the book is overlong and overladen with totally irrelevant details (who cares about trade between Senegal, Portugal and Spain, what does the Aeneid have to do with the story, why spend so much time on Margaret Duchess of Burgundy's illuminated Book of Hours and her "visions", etc.?). When it does come to Perkin Warbeck himself, the narrative is thoroughly confusing. It takes some mental gymnastics to keep it all straight, between the boatman's son, the boy who was Brampton's attendant, the Prince who showed up in several royal courts of Europe, and who did what to him when. Same goes for his wanderings before he gets to Scotland. The narrative just doesn't flow. The sheer dryness of the writing, the contrived prose, the irrelevancies and the confusion make for the other disappointments.
The only (almost) straight piece of narrative is when "Richard, Duke of York" does try to invade England after having married one of the King of Scots' kinswomen, up to his capture and "confession". Here I have another bone to pick. Ms. Wroe's contends that, since this confession was made just before he died, it must be true. I don't see the logic of that. Being tried as a commoner, he was probably "coerced" (to put it mildly) into confessing to almost anything. Bertram Fields, in his book "Royal Blood", devotes a chapter to Yorkist pretenders who tried to overthrow Henry VII, in which he casts serious doubts about Warbeck's confession and points out some inconsistencies that might impugn its reliability.
Well, I give the book 3 stars simply as a reward for so much painstaking research. It's a pity that, so as not to have her time and effort wasted, Ms. Wroe crams all the results of that research, relevant or not, into her book, making it unwieldy, hard to follow, and a very dry read. The stars also go to having tackled an obscure historical figure and tried to shed some light in a 500-year-old mystery.
If you're a history buff and are interested in the small footnotes of history, by all means read the book. If your interest is more in history-as-entertainment and an easy read, seek elsewhere. There are other non-fiction books on the period that are a lot more digestible.
Much ado about nothing........2006-07-31
I found the Perfect Prince to be a well written and superbly research book on Perkin Warbeck affair that plagued King Henry VII of England duirng the last decade of the 15th century. The research goes deeply into this blond pretender who claims to be Richard, Duke of York who somehow survived his days in the Tower of London while his older brother was murdered. The level of deception proves to be so great that many great monarchs of Europe gave their support of him and many English men great or small gave their support as well as their lives for him.
Ann Wroe investigates this interesting sideshow of European history, trying to determined the true nature of this blond fellow who fooled so many, often with their lives and his origins. The study of motivation of Perkin Warbeck, aka: Ricahrd, Duke of York proves to be an interesting and indepth look. One of the important side subjects of this book remains the fate of the princes of the tower, a subject that continued to interest many during the last decade of the 15th century as well as up to the 21st century.
If there was a weakness in this book, I believed it had a lot to do with the fact that the book was over written. Too many petty details were brought out in the book, too tedious at times in some sections. I thought the book could have been edited more tightly.
Still, this book proves to be an interesting read although it tailored to a specific subject matter. Anyone who got any interest in the fate of the Princes in the Tower should read this book. Of course, Henry VII make a dour subject matter but this booka also reflects upon his rule as well.
Rambling and incoherent.......2006-04-01
I am a history buff and an avid reader of anything written about the Wars of the Roses, and in particular, anything written about Richard III and the mystery of the Princes in the Tower. This book, however, was hard to finish. The narrative style is so rambling and incoherent that it is difficult to follow. Facts, dates, and quotes are muddled, sentance structure is meandering and the author never seems able to make a point. How this book got past a copy editor, I'll never figure out.
Incredible Book.......2006-01-25
If you like real mysteries and have a taste for all the problematical aspects of real history and research, this is an incredible, masterful book. It is one of the most satisfying books I have ever read - satisfying on many levels and in many ways.
I am surprised by some of the negative reviews. Obviously, there are people who did not read the book with suffient care and attention. For example, to quote Wroe on Perkin's final confession, as if this is her last word, is to show a woeful understanding of her style and the way the book works. This is not a short book, but it is a truly fine book. If you liked Barbara Tuchman's _A Distant Mirror_, you will love this tale as it is better written, more complex and mysterious, and about a historically more significant person.
REVIEW OF ANN WROE'S THE PERFECT PRINCE BY JOHN CHUCKMAN.......2005-04-25
The subject of this book is one of those remarkable stories of someone who may have been a prince escaped from murder or a clever and well-tutored imposter. This is the Anastasia story of England in the late 1400s. Was the subject of this book Richard Plantangenet, Duke of York, second son of Edward IV, or one Perkin Warbeck (a name with various spellings including Werbecque) from Tournai in what today is Belgium? Ms. Wroe, while telling an interesting story and enlightening us on many of the story's complexities, does not solve the mystery.
A bit of the background to the Prince Richard/Warbeck story is known to many through Shakespeare's wonderful play, Richard III, where Richard's nephews, the sons of Edward IV, are murdered in the Tower at Richard's command. But Shakespeare was concerned with drama and human character and notoriously inaccurate in his histories. The legend of a hideous, spidery Richard III is no more valid than the story of Anne Boleyn, mother of Elizabeth I, having bizarre markings plus an extra finger on one hand, a story which served the interests of Henry VIII in demonizing his legally-murdered wife.
Shakespeare's Richard was the creation of several writers, notably Sir Thomas More, a truly nasty piece of work always ready to burn "heretics" alive and yet coming down to us in popular history as the noble "Man for All Seasons." More wrote to please and flatter the Tudors.
Richard's character is today regarded as heroic, and it is not certain at all that he had the young princes murdered, as indeed it is not certain that the princes were murdered. Richard's terrible death on Bosworth Field marked the start of Henry Tudor's reign as Henry VII, father of tyrant Henry VIII and grandfather of the redoubtable Elizabeth Gloriana.
Wroe's book has a number of faults. First is a stylistic tendency for a dreamy drifting-off from the narrative with paragraphs of associations and tidbits of obscure fact. You might call this illustrating the manuscript. Some find it appealing, and so do I when it is not overdone, but it can be irritating, as it sometimes is here, reminding me somewhat of the excesses of Fernand Braudel in The Identity of France.
For someone concerned with a display of detailed and even obscure scholarship in the early part of the book, Wroe, in the latter part, offers some almost naively simple scenes. In speaking of Warbeck's confession at his execution, for example, Wroe says, "The last thing they [the condemned] did was to speak falsehoods. It is almost unthinkable that Henry would have forced such a thing on Perkin, or that he would have agreed to do it."
Nonsense. Invariably at public executions of important or notable persons, they confessed their guilt, just as virtually all accused did at Stalin's show trials. The King's powers were too sweeping for it to be otherwise. In the case of treason, individuals were hung before being taken down, still alive, to be disemboweled and castrated, then to be drawn and quartered. A nod from the King allowed death to occur mercifully on the gallows. Also in the case of treason, the condemned person's children could be turned into paupers through confiscation of all property, or they could be treated with some degree of leniency. The wife and any relatives faced terrible possibilities were the death not an acceptable one (Warbeck left a wife and a son in England).
The book's index is inadequate, a considerable fault in a book about an era in which spelling was almost guesswork. The name Warbeck, for example, is not listed alphabetically for at least a cross-reference.
Still, this is a book worth reading, and, at times, it flows nicely.
Book Description
This is a major new student edition of the text described as "the first modern classic of English history." Francis Bacon's insight into human motives, his life-long experience of politics and government, and his remarkable literary skills, render this History of the Reign of King Henry VII a major work of English literature and an important document in the history of political thought. The edition also includes other relevant writings by Bacon, generous editorial footnotes explaining the historical and political issues of the period, and a substantial glossary.
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