Page 93 - All About History 48 - 2017 UK

Reviews

HENRY III: THE SON

OF MAGNA CARTA

A comprehensive portrait of an overshadowed king

Author Matthew Lewis Publisher Amberley Publishing
Price £20 Released Out now

oe to you, O land, when your child in using Magna Carta as a guideline. Elderly and
is a king.” Murdered, deposed or having outlived each of the early Plantagenet
eventual failures, those who have royals that he had served, Marshal offers his
come to the crown of England sunset years to placing young Henry upon a path
“Was children have frequently that defines the remainder of his reign. He is
demonstrated the truth of this line from kept in the care of pious, rather than self-serving,
Ecclesiastes. Henry III is a stunning exception that men, a quality that no one modelled better than
does not often receive much notice for his success. Marshal himself.
In this biography, Matthew Lewis explores Lewis digs into the early influences upon
the great detriments that faced nine-year-old King Henry and how they shaped his rule and
King Henry and how he not only held on to his personality, while also exploring his failures.
kingdom but also succeeded where his infamous Misjudging situations, both political and military,
father had failed. One of the tools that made his Henry caused a good portion of the unrest that he
success possible was Magna Carta. Had King John was forced to deal with. He was born to be king
lived longer, Lewis asserts, this famous document but lacked the talents and character traits that
might have been lost to history, as the one who could have made him a better one. Written in an
signed it had no intention of adhering to it. accessible narrative format reminiscent of Dan
Due credit is given to history’s greatest knight, Jones, this biography brings to life the complex
William Marshal, for initiating Henry’s success history of a forgotten Medieval king.

EDWARD IV & ELIZABETH

WOODVILLE: A TRUE

ROMANCE

When a ladies’ man monarch met a
widowed commoner, sparks flew
Author Amy Licence Publisher Amberley Publishing Price £20 Released Out now

nce upon a time there was a teenage sent shockwaves through a country in turmoil.
king. Popular with the ladies, ambitious Dashing through one of the most unsettled
and with the world at his feet, Edward times in English history, from the mystery of the
IV could have anything and anyone he Princes in the Tower to the Wars of the Roses,
O wanted. When the widowed Elizabeth Edward IV & Elizabeth Woodville: A True Romance,
Woodville petitioned him to restore her son’s is much more than a love story. It is a sweeping
lost inheritance, Edward fell head over heels in examination of the shaping of a nation, with the
love. Yet Elizabeth wasn’t about to surrender complex scope of its subject matter ably handled
her reputation and good name for a fling, so the by Licence. The research is evident on every page,
besotted king made her his wife. It was to prove a and this often tangled web of family, marriage
fateful decision. and genealogy is unpicked admirably.
Better known as the White Queen, the Part Cinderella story, part political intrigue
penniless Elizabeth Woodville’s life was and part historical legend, Licence brings a fresh
tumultuous, and this book tells her remarkable perspective to a story that has been told many
story. Widowed while in her mid-20s, her second times before. In her hands the characters live
marriage to Edward IV caused considerable and breathe, and she has done a wonderful job of
controvers y. Intended for a prestigious marriage, capturing the legendary character of the famed
Edward’s decision to make a commoner his queen White Queen.