An excellent reference about how the mighty have fallen and the thorny aspects that led to. This is a title that is labeled as non-fiction and a valuable reference but can read at times as a brilliant historical novel. Mr. Jones has presented his audience with a "sequel" to the Plantagenets and moved focus to another branch of the illustrious family tree- the Tudors. But before we long time armchair enthusiasts of the past or those just finding an interest in 15th to 16th-century English and French History can understand the rise of the Tudors and the significance of the bloody events that brought a name from obscurity into infamy Mr. Jones first wants the reader to understand the fall of the direct Plantagenet line and centers this non-fiction work more on building against the notion that the Wars of the Roses were a straightforward network of wars and battles concerning the White Rose (for the House of York) and the Red Rose (for the House of Lancaster). Current trends of modernized and amplified history and the slew of fiction titles appearing on the heels of the recent discovery of the remains of Richard III will have the unfamiliar learner believing that the Wars of the Roses were a dramatic series of wars that simply entailed a family's power struggle for the crown of England. Not so and Mr. Jones makes this clear in the introductory that there is more to the events that led to and the maelstrom of blood soaked timelines that created this ultimate political instability of the Kingdoms of England and France during the 15th and 16th centuries. Through an entertaining, neutral standing, and very reader friendly style the author invites the curious to examine each detailed affair and the names from this time period and explains their intentional or unfortunate entanglement in the years that tore England and France asunder with an unstable hand on the wheel of fate. As the pages turn and the numerous condemned noble heads roll on both sides, we see five kings that sat on the throne and the pomp and pageantry of ceremony that resulted. We also see that the instability of the realms and carnage that ensued from politics and progeny but inherited mental ailments that may have kept kings as passive lambs rather than rampant confident lions that were sorely needed in that time of upheaval and unbalance. The final pages holds the rise from the ashes of the Plantagenets the promised rise of the Tudor line and we are given a brief view of the tangled webs that ensued from Henry VIII to Elizabeth I and there is still much to be told. This is history; this happened and if you are new to this portion of history I strongly encourage you to please begin here with this excellent reference then reexamine the current fictional and romanticized version of events. You may find that truth is more entertaining than fiction. * I would like to thank PENGUIN GROUP Viking and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and enjoy The Wars of the Roses The Fall of the Plantagenets and the Rise of the Tudors UK PUBLISHED TITLE: The Hollow Crown: The Wars of the Roses and the Rise of the Tudors by Dan Jones Followup to: The Plantagenets: The Warrior Kings and Queens Who Made England by Dan Jones -EGP/October 2014 Comments are closed.
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