Alison Weir, Queens at War

Alison Weir, Queens at War (Jonathan Cape) 

Tainted with suspicion and impeded by his own aloofness and arrogance, York found it increasingly difficult to win the support of his fellow magnates.

History might not repeat itself but it often rhymes. That was in 1449, not 2025.

And in 1456, 

a London apprentice was hanged, drawn and quartered for asserting that Prince Edward was not the Queen's son. 

So we can at least be glad that, at present, in 2025, speculation on who the fathers of Prince Andrew and Prince Harry really were doesn't bring with it the goriest death penalty.

But we might enjoy a bit more witchcraft. It was the pretext on which Joan of Navarre, wife of Henry IV, was sidelined in later life but only sidelined and not burnt at the stake which suggests that nobody actually believed it but it was a lurid, politically expedient charge to put her on.

If history rhymes then perhaps Henry V was the successful, war-winning hero, not unlike Margaret Thatcher was but he had his cruel downside, like some say she had, although there is no record of her having had any Scargillite miner buried alive.

But thus, public opinion had favoured the Alpha Male, front foot winner, the fifth Henry, more than it ever did the sixth, who was more pious and less of a warrior. Given to other-worldliness, 'simple', they said.

It's hard to take sides in what is the central story of the Wars of the Roses, with emphasis on the role of the female. The contrasting claims to the throne of England of the houses of Lancaster and York are medieval spin-doctoring at best but having the best claim doesn't mean you are best suited to the job. I gradually became Lancastrian although had pre-set prejudices towards that side anyway, not that the eventual 'readeption' of the bewildered Henry VI ever looked like a good idea.

But it's an entertaining, vast catalogue of tales of carnage, dodgy deals with France and Burgundy, turncoats, executions, monarchs dashing off to the north, Scotland or Wales, sometimes in disguise or onto ships. One eventually has to admire Margaret of Anjou ahead of Elizabeth Widville but both have plenty to like about them. Alison Weir's summary of all these episodes is necssarily fast-moving and one might want to stop at certain moments to consider the situation. Except we did that at school a few times in very dull fashion when given the versions by that terrible historian, William Shakespeare. Tremendous poet and dramatist he may have been but now I wonder where the sympathies of our 1970's grammar school teachers lay who seemed to be in thrall to royalty and his representation of 'history'. That the glorious history of this sceptred isle is one of sinister machinations and dark ambition comes as no surprise.   

Anne Neville, wife of Richard III, barely features in her own chapter. Alison Weir is in little doubt that Shakespeare got it right about Richard, the evidence overwhelmingly implicates him in the murders of the princes in the tower, plus being involved in murders of Clarence and, it is suggested, perhaps Anne, as he wanted to move on and marry his 18yo niece. If all political careers end in failure then the Plantagenets found the right man to end with, notwithstanding that he died bravely at Bosworth.

One can't help but notice that the life expectancy of English kings in those days was short. Edward IV avoided being dispatched by a rival but found an illness to do it for him instead. But the future Henry VIII comes into the picture in the last few pages of this action-packed roller-coaster of riches, desperation, glamour and suffering and so we know it's by no means finished yet.