**spoiler alert** The current edition is revised from the first impression. As if by a miracle the author found that some extra documents were availab**spoiler alert** The current edition is revised from the first impression. As if by a miracle the author found that some extra documents were available to more adequately complete her research. 6 welsh bardic poems have been translated into English and now in a less that literary version of the truth show a factual addition to the sum of knowledge about the era in which Blanche lived on the Welsh Marches. It is of course instructional since the backdrop of Tudors and Cecil families and indeed of many of the most powerful in the kingdom hailed from the region. The period governing Blanche's early years still remains sketchy in terms of detail; but Richardson shows how she must have been influential on the Virgin Queen. On Blanche' s tomb in Bacton church Herefordshire there was a confirmation (if any were needed) she was indeed in tacto when she died. Indeed the Queen surrounded herself by like-minded women at a court dominated by the Protestant fair sex. Furthermore as a centre for Lollardy, Herefordshire provided a backdrop for the genealogical welshness to become inextricably linked with the Oldcastle family who expressed nationalism in terms of scriptural translation into English that challenged the fundamental basis for Latin Christendom. London was a long way away in 16th century taking many weeks sometimes to manage mountainous countryside that illuminated the monastic books of pilgrimage to a region where the geography was a determinant of allegiances. The Yorkist rebels were successful here and the landlords who dominated the landscape from Ludlow Castle became the ancestral white Queen that echoed down through a language found in those complex webs of dynastic links to a monarch's person. Blanche was Ap Harri in Welsh and Parry in London when she became an indispensable friend and confidante to the young imperial majestie : it is difficult to know how much she changed the Queen's life for better or worse, but the new discovery of paintings hiding in America seem to confirm that contemporary evidence proves her presence at court. Blanche would also have been influential over womanly and personal habits: about the food that Elizabeth ate, her diet and clothing. It is thought for example that Blanche herself wore sober puritanical clothing. This is an interesting book for local historians, genealogists and those who pursue women's history. It adds a useful biography by adding to the rich tapestry that was the Elizabeth Court at a great moment in English history. England had never been so rich, powerful and successful around the globe, and her class of gentry were up and coming, rising in parliament, the middling sort had a unique role commanding a high presence. ...more
**spoiler alert** The author of this new biography is a young graduate of History from Oxford. Her scholastic record is impressive and this book shows**spoiler alert** The author of this new biography is a young graduate of History from Oxford. Her scholastic record is impressive and this book shows her thoroughgoing knowledge of the period. Several prestigious historians like Michael Prestwich and R A Griffiths have written extensively about this troubled king. While G A Harriss has composed a book that attempts to show that Henry VI's reign was instrumental in shaping the future English nation. Early 15th century life expectancy was quite low: plague, bread shortages, freezing winters, failed harvests, pestilence, and brutality or barbaric warfare all made life very precarious. Ms Johnson writes with a lyrical pen describing in prosaic form the colourful processions and courtly love of the period: putting together her knowledge from a lifetime of academic readings she draws a tableau of fascinating insights. London was a large city of 100,000 people, which the king rarely left except for Windsor Castle. He only once visited his kingdom of France, and then never went back. Perhaps that was because of the closely-held counsels of his uncles and legitimated cousins, the Beauforts. That the Suffolk - Beaufort peace party was favoured by Henry himself is exposed by his personal fraility, feebleness and reluctance to get involved in affairs of state. War is a catalyst for change: but Henry wanted less of it. Best for his bookishness and academic foundations, love of libraries and churches, it was a sensibility that only became a real challenge to the soldiers in his Council when he got married. Being father to a son and heir posed a real difficulty to the political plotters who emerged from the collapse of Lancastrian Normandy in 1449. But it was the death of General Talbot that prompted Henry's first of many mental breakdowns: perhaps his own frailty was a cause in itself for the paranoiac insecurity that he felt so acutely in public that it would enfeeble his mind and paralyse the power of speech. Catatonic, struck rigid by fear Henry became quite incapable of making a decision, and thus his own worst enemy. His weakness was a source of strength for a strongly domineering wife who quickly mastered the role of queenship. She was a fount of courage and fortitude, facing down his enemies at St Albans. The outbreak of hostilities was catastrophic for Henry personally, making him withdraw into his small dark world of uncertainties. Fragile at the best of times, Johnson builds on the former histories about the reign in describing the lawlessness and feuding that was largely to be landing at Henry's door. He would be blamed for the break down, not least by his cousin York, a charger champing at the bit, ready for more action. Always a bit of a brute, York was arrogant, swaggering, self-opinionated and prickly; yet he was also a prince of the blood who had served the Crown in France and Ireland with some courage and distinction. It was an unconstitutional impropriety to announce himself Lord Protector of the Realm but henry was nowhere to claim he could rule in his own name. The years after his son's birth in 1455 were one of declining fortunes for poor Henry. Johnson shows how a gentle man with a highly sensitive intellect was easily bruised, but was more resilient than given credit for.
The period like the man remains one of contradictions, at once revolutionary and yet achingly conservative. The Yorkists proved more professional and too energetic for Somerset's lacklustre attempts to defeat Henry's enemies in the field. But all his counsellors, evil or otherwise, were killed or murdered: Talbot, Suffolk, Somerset, Cromwell, even his uncle Humphrey none who supported the monarchy at this time seemed to have a guarantee for personal safety in the realm. In the end the Lancastrian House was snuffed out after the Readeption culminated in yet another invasion. It had begun with the unhappiness of the Usurpation, but poor Henry, after the murder of son Prince Edward, was left hungry and alone in the Tower before being despatched. A pitiable end for a man taken down by a brutal regime and era of virile violence among overmighty nobles.
A well-written and well-researched biography of a lesser-loved king but a reign of intrinsic importance in the development of the English monarchy. Henry VI's reign was the first of the modern kings which was born in the Renaissance out of dynastic squabbling, commercial expansion, an activist Commons, and aggressive nobility greedy for power. Ownership and responsibility played a big part in the moral dilemma presented to a king incapable of handling the crisis. Shakespeare wrote three books about the period immortalizing many of the historical characters that played such a part in bringing down a puppet king. ...more
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