Bibliography (or Further Reading for those in Manchester)

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Quick & easy; these books are all very easy introductions to the period.

D.R Cook - Lancastrians & Yorkists: The Wars of the Roses – Longman 1984 – a good intro.

C.D.Ross - The Wars of the Roses: A concise history

M.A.Hicks - The Wars of the Roses: 1455-1485 - Osprey Essential Histories series 2003 – in this is new popular work Hicks covers the military campaigns in some detail with enough political background to understand how they happened. My favourite chapters are those on Nicholas Harpsfield (the probable author of 'The Arrivall of Edward IV) and on the female victims of the Wars, a subject rarely addressed and probably in need of dedicated research if this chapter is anything to go by.

Detailed but accessible

Keith Dockray - Henry VI, Margaret of Anjou and the Wars of the Roses - Uses a selection from original sources to illustrate events and gain insights into the characters involved.

H.T.Evans - Wales and the Wars of the Roses - Sutton 1998 - A modern reprint of a classic from 1915; in style, it's very difficult to tell this isn't a modern work. It sets out how Wales was involved in the wars. Obviously not including modern research but still a seminal work.

Ralph A. Griffiths & Roger S. Thomas - The Making of the Tudor Dynasty - Sutton 1998 - The Tudors were close to the heart of events throughout the period and eventually finished up the 'winners'. This book brings to light much obscure information from the family's earliest origins as servants of the Princes of Gwynedd through their rise to magnate status after Owen's marriage to the Dowager Queen of England and to Bosworth and the establishment of the dynasty under Henry VII.

J.R.Lander - Conflict & Stability in Fifteenth-Century England - Hutchinson 1969 - Last time I read Lander, I was struck by his pro-Lancastrian stance but in a reread I wonder if that wasn't a reflection of my own Yorkist bias at the time. He seems more balanced on a second reading and I still like this book, biased or not. In just 7 chapters and less than 200 pages, he gives a terse and usually well-written account of the nature of the period and the flow of events. Where it might fall down is in the lack of footnoted references to support his comments but he does give extensive bibliographies for each chapter. I recommend it for the quality of information given in a relatively short book and for its accessibility.

Sheila Sancha – The Castle Story - Collins 1979 – An excellent introduction to the development of the English castle charmingly illustrated by the author herself showing how dress as well as architecture evolved from Roman times onward. The author manages to combine enough fact and detail to make this a good reference work with a style accessible to children and adults alike. My one criticism is that her excellent ground plans lack scales.

A.Weir - Lancaster & York the Wars of the Roses. - Jonathan Cape 1995 - Weir has been criticised for her use of sources and some people reckon this poor work but I think it's a most readable study, very accessible to the non-historian.

Textbooks (warning! Some of these are hard work)

C.Carpenter - The Wars of the Roses: Politics and the Constitution in England, c.1437-1509 - Cambridge University Press 1997 - Carpenter uses detailed analyses of the Warwickshire gentry to illustrate novel aspects of the relationship between a medieval English king and his subjects. While I can't claim to agree with her every word, I found this book extremely illuminating as to the nature of kingship and how the kings actually governed.

J.Gillingham - The Wars of the Roses: Peace and Conflict in 15 C. England.

Ralph A. Griffiths - The Reign of King Henry VI - Sutton 1981 – a superbly detailed analysis of Henry's reign from his accession, just a few months old, in 1422 to his deposition in 1461 (evidently Griffiths doesn't think the readeption counts as part of Henry's 'reign' and I can see his point). Griffith's covers the French wars in some detail before going over Henry's personal rule and the gathering unrest that led to him losing his throne; an excellent reference.

M.A.Hicks - Bastard Feudalism - Hicks research tends to be meticulous so though I've not read this one, I'm willing to listen to recommend it on the word of those that have. Bastard feudalism is one of those late medieval concepts least understood by the layman and yet central to the way society works. If you want to part with your copy, let me know.J

J.R.Lander - Crown & Nobility - Edward Arnold 1976

J.R.Lander - Government & Community: England 1450-1509 - Edward Arnold 1980 - Containing much of the material from his earlier books, I found this one a poor return for the money.

J.R.Lander - The Wars of the Roses - Sutton Publishing Ltd. 1990 - Lander tells the entire story of the Wars through contemporary eyewitness accounts. This method really makes it all come alive; when you're reading Mancini giving all the gossip about Richard in present tense, you get an immediacy unmatched by any other book.

A.J. Pollard - Late Medieval England 1399 - 1509. - Longman 2000 - A very readable study in which Pollard investigates the entire century from Henry IV's usurpation through to the Reformation in 1540. Between the two sections up to 1461 and after, he also goes into the nature of the Realm of England and offers several novel insights.

J.A.F.Thomson - The Transformation of Medieval England 1370-1529 - Longman 1983 - Superb! First class overviews over the period with sections devoted to Environment and Economy, The Nation of England, The Course of Politics (in a very precied form), The Structure of Government and The Church and Education. It also has an amazing set of appendices with a huge amount of diverse information.

Biographies

M.M.Clive - This Sun of York: A Biography of Edward IV - A fair piece of work though the author certainly loves Edward; In my opinion, Edward is badly in need of a modern scholarly biography.

M.A.Hicks - False, Fleeting, Perjur'd Clarence: George, Duke of Clarence – Headstart History 1992 (originally by Sutton 1980) - Hicks is an excellent historian and really gets into the character of Clarence without losing accessibility. The appendices at the back include a comprehensive listing of all Clarence's estates by county as they changed through time and lists the MPs in the 1478 Parliament that tried him. I cannot recommend this work too highly; it was seminal in making Rosewar.

M.A.Hicks - Warwick the Kingmaker – Blackwell 1998 - Much more detailed than Kendall, (which I've now removed 'cos Hicks' work is so much better), but very dry and intense: be warned, Hicks sticks to history and there is no fictional speculation – unlike Kendall. This is not an easy read but Hicks has found a lot of new information, scoring especially well in the early period of Warwick's life. Now in paperback.

Specialist

A.L.Brown - The Governance of Late Medieval England 1272-1461 - Edward Arnold 1989 - An excellent work on the mechanisms of Medieval English Government.

Christopher Dyer - Standards of Living in the Later Middle Ages - Cambridge University Press 1989 - A first class source of data on incomes, expenditure and lifestyles and how they changed between 1200 and 1520.

Adrian Pettifer – English Castles - Boydell Press 1995 - A comprehensive gazatteer to the castles of England county-by-county. An absolute must if, like me, you're a castle fanatic and 'Welsh Castles' is available in hardcover.

A.J.Pollard (ed) - The Wars of the Roses: Problems in Focus - Macmillan 1995 - A collection of essays by various authors, edited by Pollard who also writes the introduction on Society, Politics and the Wars of the Roses. Each original essay is tersely written and very accessible.