Alison Weir's "The Wars of the Roses": A Comprehensive History of England's Fifteenth-Century Dynastic Conflict

PAUL FRANCK: J'ai lu ce livre avec grand intérêt. J'y ai trouvé beaucoup d'informations que j'ignorais sur cette période de l'histoire d'Angleterre. Très prenant!

France on Mar 15, 2023

K. MCBRIDE: When interested in the British historic period of the War of Roses found the author’s work on Amazon. The author, Alison Weir, is an outstanding historic writer who brings the time period, characters, momentous issues, and scenes alive for the reader. Then I followed with Alison Weir’s “The Six Wives of Henry VII, The Life of Elizabeth I, and Elizabeth of York: A Tudor Queen and Her World.” All superb historic works!

United States on Nov 01, 2022

Amazon Fan: I have always enjoyed history and this for me is very engrossing & enjoyable read, not a fanciful affair regards conversation between the various characters being portrayed.
Being a Yorkshire Women I have always felt that the Yorkshire Kings didn’t have a very good History of achievements and the deeds that Richard 111 supposed to have committed are a nightmare.
I have to add I haven’t arrived at that point in History yet, if I see in print the bias against the York’s I may not read anymore, then again I might.
I do recommend this Book , based on a tremendous amount of research I would imagine . Thank you

Germany on Sep 01, 2022

rob crawford: f you want a grand-panorama narrative history on a watershed civil war, this is a splendid place to get it. As a Shakespeare fan, I have long been curious about all the personalities he portrays in his 7-play cycle, from Richard II to Henry VI Part III, that lays the groundwork for, and then follows, the Wars of the Roses. Though Weir is not an academic historian, the density and intelligence of her portrayal is far superior to more scholarly treatments: the narrative hums with life.

Weir hews to the more traditional view of the conflict, according to which it started during the rule of Richard II, a profoundly flawed king whose erratic behavior, corruption, and violation of the standards of the time alienated his magnates. Once Bollingbroke led a rebellion that deposed him, becoming Henry IV, the die was essentially cast: the Lancasters usurped the throne that the Yorks should have gained (due to arcane rules of blood accession), initiating a train of events that culminated in the Wars of the Roses. This perspective is currently disputed, but it is the one that Shakespeare portrayed.

Though there were a few challenges to the Lancasters, it appeared that Henry V's...

United Kingdom on Jul 14, 2018

Gabby M: While I'd always been aware of the so-called Wars of the Roses in British history (I knew it was the Yorks and the Lancasters and it finally ended for good when the two houses intermarried and formed the House of Tudor), it doesn't tend to be taught in American schools. Which is why it's perfect that Alison Weir has a whole book just about that period in English history: The Wars of the Roses.

It's a confusing story, to be sure: it seems like virtually every man in it is named Edward, Richard, or Henry, and they're all related to each other, besides. But Weir does her best to distinguish each of them, and she traces the conflicts not just from the point that they formally began, but from the point where they are rooted. The fighting doesn't get started until about halfway through, but it would be well nigh impossible to understand without all the preamble. She sets her stage carefully, and, much to my relief, when the fighting begins, it doesn't turn into a straight blow-by-blow battle narrative. I find descriptions of war maneuvers to be boring beyond measure, but Weir tells us enough to give us a sense of the battles but not make us feel like we're sitting through a...

United States on Apr 02, 2018

Firelock: One of the best history books I've read in a while, and I read a lot! The author hit the perfect balance of content with readability. Doesn't get too bogged down in detail yet covers all the bases. The subject can be a very confusing one, with all the various names and Titles becoming tedious at times. But Weir handles this beautifully and I rarely found myself having to go back and re-read a portion like I do with other books on this period. Excellent background story on King Richard II and the lead up to the wars. I can't believe how much great detail on the character's lives she was able to include. She makes the connection between characters. She seemed to answer every question I could have thought to ask. What was the motivation of these people? What in their background made them this way? She avoids the overly academic dull prose and gets straight to the point. She avoids the impulse of many history writers to write mainly to impress their peers. Instead it is beautifully written, flows along in a logical manner, and makes for a book even non-history buffs might want to read. My only complaint is that the book ends with the reign of Edward IV and we don't get to hear more...

United States on Aug 02, 2015

Robin: I tend to find battles and military history difficult to concentrate on - all I really need to know about a battle is who won, who died, who was injured, who was captured. So you might wonder why I would read a book on the Wars of the Roses. I assumed it would be filled with much more than battle scenes - there would be character assessments and lots of political intrigue too. And I was right, it was incredibly fascinating and I feel I understand this time period and conflict much better.

I still wind up skimming the battle scenes but I never skip over them completely since they usually contain those important details I'd rather the author would just sum up. But surprisingly, there were a few bits and pieces of battle descriptions that actually caught my eye. No one can claim this is too "dry", no matter how you might feel about military history:

"As their forces broke, the Yorkist cavalrymen raced to the horse park behind their own lines and mounted their steeds to give chase. As they thundered past, the King and Warwick, flushed with victory, yelled, `Spare the commons! Kill the lords!' Their words went unheeded."

For once, I was glad that the author did not...

United States on Feb 02, 2013

BookwormAnnie: I'm just about to begin studying Shakespeare and, being aware that he did not always stick to events as they really happened, I wanted to get some idea of the stories behind Shakespeare's History plays. I'd had this book on my bookshelf for many years but hadn't got around to reading it. When I picked it up I found it pretty unputdownable! The epigram at the beginning, a quote from Sir Thomas More, encapsulates both what Wier has done, and what WS did - a good opener for the book. Like some other readers I found some difficulties with names, sometimes AW uses one name and then uses the title of that person. I was also a bit dismayed by the genealogy trees - an amazing resource to support the history in the book, but really difficult to follow because of the handwriting - after a lot of checking we discovered that the genealogy charts were hand-written not typeset. It's probably fair to assume that Weir created the charts in a larger format - say A3 - which was then reduced to fit the page size of the book, resulting in tiny writing which is difficult to read. I was tempted (and still am) to recreate my own in something simple such as Times! However, having said all that, I got...

United Kingdom on Sep 16, 2012

Asmodeous: As a former University Student who specialised in the Wars of the Roses, I just wish I had access to this superb telling of the story when I was studying. As an overview it brilliant and sets you up for more focused research of the primary and other secondary sources.It is a fast-paced, exciting and riveting read that is very well written.

As hobby I wrote notes that I hoped would assist me in the writing of a film script of the Wars of the Roses based on Alison Weir's book - at the very least I thought the exercise would be fun and improve my personal grasp of the subject. As I was writing my notes, I was struck by the concise nature of her writing - it is detailed and thorough, but not a word is wasted. As such the story really flows. Casual readers may get frustrated with some of the names of the central characters (i.e they are referred to by their titles so you will find several 'Suffolks' for instance, which can get a bit confusing if you are not paying attention, but to tell you the truth that is the nature of the subject my friend). However the story of this period is fascinating and more than compensates - it is like the Godfather films or maybe the Sopranos, where...

United Kingdom on Sep 26, 2010