Lancastrians, Yorkists, and Henry VII

Book excerpt: "Lancastrians, Yorkists, and Henry VII is a general survey of the political and dynastic history of England in the fifteenth century, taking as its general theme the fortunes of Edward III's descendants, the rise and fall of the Houses of Lancaster and York, and the foundations of the Tudor monarchy. Professor Chrimes provides a straight-forward account, written in the light of recent research, of that dynastic aspect of English history which is the central theme of a number of Shakespeare's English history plays, and which concentrates on the struggle for power with its accompanying drama and tragedy. He is concerned mainly with the history of the royal family in its public capacity from the death of Edward III to the death of Henry VII, a period which contained the most prolonged and bitter dynastic upheavals in English history. Lancastrians, Yorkists, and Henry VII is not a history of England as a whole, and does not attempt to include social and economic history where this does not have an immediate bearing on the main theme. Aspects of parliamentary and administrative history are considered as they affect the throne, and the differing methods of the Lancastrian and Yorkist kings, and the first Tudor king, are contrasted and compared. The book will be of use to sixth-form students, first-year history undergraduates, and to those who require a knowledge of the historical facts of the period covered by Shakespeare's plays from Richard II to Richard III. It will also serve the general reader as an intelligent short history of the fifteenth century, since it deals with more popular aspects of history, the rise and fall of kings and their struggles for power. Although it does not ignore them completely, it does not go into the minutiae of economic and administrative history in which the general reader is less interested."-Publisher.