gilda_elise: (Books-Bibliophilia)
Last Days of Richard III


The Last Days of Richard III contains a new and uniquely detailed exploration of Richard’s last 150 days. By deliberately avoiding the hindsight knowledge that he will lose the Battle of Bosworth Field, we discover a new Richard: no passive victim, awaiting defeat and death, but a king actively pursuing his own agenda.

It also re-examines the aftermath of Bosworth: the treatment of Richard’s body; his burial; and the construction of his tomb. And there is the fascinating story of why, and how, Richard III’s family tree was traced until a relative was found, alive and well, in Canada.

Now, with the discovery of Richard’s skeleton at the Greyfrairs Priory in Leicester, England, John Ashdown-Hill explains how his book inspired the dig and completes Richard III’s fascinating story, giving details of how Richard died, and how the DNA link to a living relative of the king allowed the royal body to be identified.


The book is a deep dive into how Richard saw his place, and the rebellions against him. He’s seen here, not so much as a tragic figure, but of someone who believed in what he was doing, but who, unfortunately, suffered the fate of all disposed English kings. We get a second look at what happened right after the battle and in the days leading up to his burial and beyond.

There’s also the search for his family’s descendants and the find that would be the linchpin in proving that the bones found under the carpark were, indeed, those of Richard III. That a direct mtDNA existed was a truly lucky break.

It’s an interesting read, even for someone who has read extensively about the man. My only problem was with the small print, which made reading the book a bit of a chore.


Mount TBR

Mount TBR 2025 Book Links


Links are to more information regarding each book or author, not to the review.

1. The Demon of Unrest: A Saga of Hubris, Heartbreak, and Heroism at the Dawn of the Civil War by Erik Larson
2. The Silence of the Girls (Women of Troy #1) by Pat Barker
3. Withered + Sere (Immemorial Year #1) by T.J. Klune
4. The Traitor's Son by Wendy Johnson
5. All That Heaven Allows: A Biography of Rock Hudson by Mark Griffin
6. You Like It Darker by Stephen King, Thomas Hayman (Illustrations)
7. The Fireman by Joe Hill
8. The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein
9. Lark Ascending by Silas House
10. Memorials by Richard Chizmar
11. The Russo-Ukrainian War: The Return of History by Serhii Plokhy
12. Clytemnestra by Costanza Casati
13. The Border by Robert McCammon
14. The 2084 Report: An Oral History of the Great Warming by James Lawrence Powell
15. Stone Blind by Natalie Haynes
16. All Over the Town by R. F. Delderfield
17. The Last Days of Richard III and the Fate of His DNA: The Book That Inspired the Dig by John Ashdown-Hill


Goodreads 17


2025 Key Word.jpg

APR – Rest, Days, Upstairs, Sing, Shell, Starlight, Life, Couple

The Last Days of Richard III and the Fate of His DNA: The Book That Inspired the Dig by John Ashdown-Hill
gilda_elise: (Books-Bibliophilia)
Lovell Our Dogge


In July 1484 Tudor agent William Collingbourne tacked up a lampoon to the walls of St Paul’s Cathedral:‘The Catte, the Ratte and Lovell our dogge rulyth all Englande under a hogge.’That cat was Sir William Catesby, one of Richard III’s principal councillors and Chancellor of the Exchequer, executed after the Battle of Bosworth. The rat was Sir William Ratcliffe, knighted by Richard during the Scottish campaigns. And the dog was Francis Lovell – not only an ally of Richard III but his closest friend – and one of the wealthiest barons in England.

Author Michèle Schindler returns to primary sources to reveal the man who was not only a boyhood friend of the king-to-be as a ward of Edward IV, but also linked to him by marriage: his wife, Anne FitzHugh, was first cousin to Richard’s wife, Anne Neville. Lovell served with The Lord Protector as Richard then was in Scotland in 1481. At Richard’s coronation, Lovell bore the third sword of state. In June 1485 he was tasked with guarding the south coast against the landing of Henry Tudor. His loyalty never wavered – even after Bosworth. He organised a revolt in Yorkshire and was behind an attempt to assassinate Henry VII. Having fled to Flanders, he played a prominent role in the Lambert Simnel enterprise. He fought at the Battle of Stoke Field in 1487 and was seen escaping, headed for Scotland. His final demise provides an intriguing puzzle that the author teases out.It is remarkable that no biography of such a central figure in the Wars of the Roses predates this one.


A meticulously researched yet highly readable book about the man whose main claim to fame was that of being Richard III’s closest friend. But when did that friendship begin? Schindler doesn’t make assumptions. The times when it could have happened are covered, but none can be verified. Personally, I have to think that it was fairly early in their lives, for their friendship to be so true.

There is little written about Lovell outside of certain points in his life, most of them dealing with the tasks given him by Richard III. He doesn’t seem to have been an ambitious man, keeping mostly to the shadows, but doing whatever his friend asked of him.

Even after Richard’s death, Lovell would continue to try to bring down Henry VII. It was never clear who Lovell wished to replace Tudor with; he may not of cared, his primary goal to kill the man responsible for his friend’s death.

His final fate is still a mystery, though Schindler does tear apart the ridiculous story of Lovell being locked into a hidden room at Minster Lovell Hall, but with no way out. Who builds a hiding place that only opens from the outside? And, as the author notes, the Hall had already been given to Henry VII’s uncle, Jasper Tudor, so it isn’t as if it would have been empty. Lastly, bones don’t disintegrate into dust when touched.

I’d like to think that Francis made it out of the country, and lived the remaining of life in obscurity. I think he would have liked that, too.


Mount TBR

Mount TBR 2022 Book Links


Links are to more information regarding each book or author, not to the review.

TBR Book Links 1-55 )

56. Biloxi by Mary Miller
57. Facing the Anthropocene: Fossil Capitalism and the Crisis of the Earth System by Ian Angus
58. The Travelling Cat Chronicles by Hiro Arikawa, Philip Gabriel (Translator)
59. The Visitant by Kathleen O'Neal Gear, W. Michael Gear
60. Lovell our Dogge: The Life of Viscount Lovell, Closest Friend of Richard III and Failed Regicide by Michele Schindler



Goodreads 60




SEPTEMBER - Title Play. Read a book with a clever title that uses a play on words, a pun, a joke, or titles that have double meanings.

Lovell our Dogge: The Life of Viscount Lovell, Closest Friend of Richard III and Failed Regicide by Michele Schindler

"The Catte, the Ratte, and Lovell our dogge, Rule all England Under the Hogge."
gilda_elise: (Misc - Over the Edge)
The Yorkists


The Yorkists include both the most wicked king in English history, Richard III, and the most tragic, his nephew Edward V, one of the Princes in the Tower. They had come to the throne in 1461, when Edward IV, who traced his claim to Edward III, replaced the ineffectual Henry VI as king. Forced into exile in 1470, Edward returned to power after the bloody battle of Towton in 1470 finally ended Lancastrian opposition. His reign was ended by his premature death in 1483, leaving behind his son Edward, a minor, as his heir. This led to Richard III's usurpation, ended two years later by his defeat and death at Bosworth Field at the hands of Henry Tudor, who became Henry VII and the founder of a new dynasty, marrying Elizabeth of York, the daughter of Edward IV. The Yorkists were one of the two main contending parties in England's first great civil war, the Wars of the Roses. They have been immortalised by Shakespeare not only in his Richard III but also in his three parts of Henry VI. Anne Crawford examines the truth behind both the characters of these kings and behind the stories in the plays, including the death of the duke of Clarence by drowning in a butt of malmsey and the celebrated murder of his nephews, Edward V and Richard, duke of York, by their uncle, Richard III.

I found the book informative, in that historical figures who are usually not covered, are covered here. Especially Richard of York’s daughters, who are often given short shrift. Her view of the males are conventional: Richard, Duke of York is competent, but lacks insight and judgement. Edward IV is intelligent but lazy. Clarence is arrogant and greedy.

Where she changes her view is when it comes to Richard III. It starts out positive, especially in his role as Duke of Gloucester. She describes him as a complex, intelligent and a genuinely pious man, yet at the same time she seems convinced that he was a child murderer.

And her glossing over Edward V’s bastardy, by comparing him to William the Conqueror, is a false flag. William was king because he conquered England; Edward’s claim was through natural inheritance. The same is true regarding Edward’s brother, Richard of York, losing his title to the dukedom of Norfolk. She castigates Richard III for this, even though the dukedom was never rightfully Richard of York’s after the death of his wife, Anne Morbray.

Yet, there is a lot of information here, as characters, and families, are given their own chapter. So while I may not agreed with some of the author’s suppositions, I can still recommend the book, especially for those new to the subject.




Links are to more information regarding each book or author, not to the review.

TBR Book Links 1-25 )
26. The Yorkists: The History of a Dynasty by Anne Crawford


Yorkists, The






Goodreads 26
gilda_elise: (Default)
Bloody Mary


Here is the tragic, stormy life of Mary Tudor, daughter of Henry VIII and Katherine of Aragon. Her story is a chronicle of courage and faith, betrayal and treachery-set amidst the splendor, pageantry, squalor, and intrigue of sixteenth-century Europe.

The history of Mary Tudor is an improbable blend of triumph, humiliation, heartbreak, and devotion-and Ms. Erickson recounts it all against the turbulent background of European politics, war, and religious strife of the mid-1500s. The result is a rare portrait of the times and of a woman elevated to unprecedented power in a world ruled and defined by men.


While somewhat informative, I’m not sure why the author titled it Bloody Mary. From her writing, I would have thought that she would have preferred Saint Mary, because that’s certainly how she comes across. She can do nothing wrong, and everything she touches turns to gold. Her reign is without parallel, with statements like “Not since the death of Henry VIII had the ruler’s personality, taste and style so dominated court life,” sprinkled throughout the book. No matter that her brother’s reign, the only one to reign between Henry VIII and Mary, was only seven years long.

Or the statement regarding Mary’s marriage to Philip, that they were reported to be “bound together by such deep love that the marriage may be expected to be a perfect union.” Erickson describes that statement as being “somewhat inexact.” As the future would show, those words couldn’t have been further from the truth.

Later on, Mary’s burning of Protestant “heretics” is described as her “reputed cruelty to the Protestants.” Even worse, is the author’s use of the trite excuse that “these people were brought to the stake in an age habituated to violence.” That didn’t seem to be the way the people of England saw it, even at the time.

Erickson has written books about other Tudors. I won’t be reading them.




Mount TBR 2020 Book Links )


BOOK BINGO 2020 - 21. Read a book that has more than 400 pages.

21. Read a book that has more than 400 pages
gilda_elise: (Default)
The Black Death


In this fresh approach to the history of the Black Death, John Hatcher, a world-renowned scholar of the Middle Ages, recreates everyday life in a mid-fourteenth century rural English village. By focusing on the experiences of ordinary villagers as they lived—and died—during the Black Death (1345–50 AD), Hatcher vividly places the reader directly into those tumultuous years and describes in fascinating detail the day-to-day existence of people struggling with the tragic effects of the plague. Dramatic scenes portray how contemporaries must have experienced and thought about the momentous events—and how they tried to make sense of it all.

The book is set up in a unique style, part historical inquiry, part novel, it enlightens with the best of both. Its characters have been created from what is known about how a person in that social position would have lived. Using that as a base, the author then fleshed out the different people of Walsham, a real village in Suffolk, in order to better show how the Black Death would have affected, not just the town, but also its people.

Some, as with Master John, the village priest, has no historical bases as a person, but rather is drawn from the many and varied books written during the Middle Ages which minutely described the duties and responsibilities of a village priest. But some are real people, their character filled out by the author. This makes their fear, as the plague moves ever closer, palpable. Their only hope, or so they believed, was in prayer.

So many died that the Black Death would change the very fabric of their society. Because there were fewer workers, the cost to hire them would go up, eventually giving more power to those who had never had any. Many who had never owned land would be able to acquire it, the standard of living of the lower classes much improved. A silver lining, of sorts.




Mount TBR 2020 Book Links

Links are to more information regarding each book or author, not to the review.


1. A Wicked War
2. The Grapes of Wrath
3. The End Is Always Near: Apocalyptic Moments, from the Bronze Age Collapse to Nuclear Near Misses
4. Thera: Pompeii of the Ancient Aegean
5. Unbury Carol
6. The Institute
7. With Speed and Violence: Why Scientists Fear Tipping Points in Climate Change
8. Elevation
9. The Remaking
10. The Great Lakes Water Wars
11. The Heresy of Dr Dee (John Dee Papers #2)
12. The Black Death


BOOK BINGO 2020 - 24. Read a Book with a color in the title

24.Color in Title
gilda_elise: (Default)
Frozen In Time


This new edition of Frozen in Time expands on the history of early British Arctic exploration and places the tragically fated Franklin expedition in the context of other expeditions of the era, including those commanded by George Back and James Clark Ross, which also suffered unaccountable and devastating losses. The authors' research reveals an unexpected - and ironic - cause for the mystery illness that befell the explorers. Never-before-seen photographs from the exhumations, updated research results, additional forensic corroboration, and a new introduction by Margaret Atwood complete this fascinating account.

I’m pretty sure I’d already read this book, back when I’d just finished Dan Simmons’ The Terror, which had started my obsession with the Franklin Expedition. But that was over ten years ago, so, while there was much I remembered, I’d forgotten some, too. Plus, there was a small addendum regarding the finding of the two ships, the Erebus in 2014, and the Terror in 2016.

Even as a reread it’s a fascinating story. That those men would even attempt the journey was one thing, but for there to be something that almost assuredly brought about failure and death makes for a compelling tragedy. The fate of the first three men to die is revealed with the autopsies of their body. Given what those autopsies show it’s almost beyond imagining, what the rest of the men must have gone through before they, too, succumbed.




Mount TBR 2019 Book Links

Links are to more information regarding each book or author, not to the review.


1. The Outsider
2. War on Peace: The End of Diplomacy and the Decline of American Influence
3. Lost Dogs and Lonely Hearts
4. The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America
5. Frozen in Time: The Fate of the Franklin Expedition


BOOK BINGO



1. Fantasy, Scifi, Paranormal - The Outsider by Stephen King
8. Historical (fiction or nonfiction) - Frozen in Time: The Fate of the Franklin Expedition by Owen Beattie, John Geiger
11. Female Author - Lost Dogs and Lonely Hearts by Lucy Dillon
15. Title is at Least Six Words Long - War on Peace: The End of Diplomacy and the Decline of American Influence by Ronan Farrow
20. A New-to-You Author - The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America by Richard Rothstein


Book Bingo 8
gilda_elise: (Default)
Third Plantagenet


From the author of The Last Days of Richard III comes the first full biography of George, Duke of Clarence, brother of Kings Richard III and Edward IV

Less well-known than his brothers Edward IV and Richard III, George, Duke of Clarence has so had little written about him, that historians are faced with a series of questions: Where was he born? What was he really like? Was it his unpredictable behavior that set him against his brother Edward IV? George played a central role in the Wars of the Roses played out by his brothers—but was he for York or Lancaster? Who was really responsible for his execution? Is the story of his drowning in a barrel of wine—as he did in Richard III—true? And was "false, fleeting, perjur'd Clarence" in some ways the role model behind the 16th-century defamation of Richard III? Finally, where was he buried and what became of his body? Can the DNA used recently to test the remains of his younger brother, Richard III, also reveal the truth about the supposed "Clarence bones" in Tewkesbury? John Ashdown-Hill exposes the myths surrounding this pivotal and central Plantagenet, with remarkable results.


There would be some difficulty in finding out anything more about George, Duke of Clarence, but Ashdown-Hill has managed to scrounge up a new fact or two. I was especially intrigued by the idea that his brother may indeed have had him drowned in a butt of malmsey, considering it more humane than having his head chopped off…which apparently they would still have done.

Unfortunately, that’s about all there was, which makes for a somewhat unsatisfying book if you already know most of George’s history. I think the author would have done well to incorporate the information in one of his other books. Also there’s the constant, ‘we’ll get back to this later,’ which caused some confusion. Are we back to it here, or even later?

I vaguely remember the speculation that George was the shortest of the three surviving brothers, but I felt the author placed too much emphasis on that fact when it came to explaining George’s behavior, especially toward his older brother, Edward IV. Whatever drove George to his repeated betrayals, I’m inclined to think that there was more to it than just his lack of height.

I really do wish that Ashdown-Hill had managed to glean more information about the man. What we know of him makes him an exceedingly intriguing person; discovering what drove him would have made for a highly interesting book.





Mount TBR 2018 Book Links )
gilda_elise: (Default)
"As Tudors go, Elizabeth of York is relatively unknown. Yet through her marriage to Henry VII she became the mother of the dynasty, with her children including a King of England (Henry VIII) and Queens of Scotland (Margaret) and France (Mary Rose), and her direct descendants including three Tudor monarchs, two executed queens and, ultimately, the Stuart royal family."

Apparently not as important, she was also the daughter of Edward IV, and niece to Richard III. But her Yorkist connections are given short shrift, her allegiances to that house seemingly nonexistent. The book is advertised as "The true story of the white princess," but I found that the author used her imagination to fill in the gaps just as much as Philippa Gregory did, but at least Gregory calls her book a novel.

I knew ahead of time that a lot of the book would have to be filled with information about Elizabeth's contemporaries; we just don't know enough about the woman to fill a book. So I wasn't put off with the first chapter being more a short history of the Wars of the Roses and the its major players. What I did find disturbing was how much the author's bias shows through. Things that we can't know, one way or the other, are written as fact, especially when it comes to exonerating Elizabeth's, and her mother's, behavior.

The same can't be said for Licence's take on Richard III. If something bad was said about him, well, it was probably true. Because there were rumors, it must be fact that he was trying to dump his dying wife—who, along with her son Licence claims were sickly, no matter that there's no proof of that. And, of course, the same old story about the "princes in the tower." No one can say for sure what happened to them, but that doesn't stop Licence.

The author goes in the opposite direction when it comes to Henry VI. No matter that more than once contemporary source has proclaimed his stinginess, because he didn't have his family in rags somehow that's proof that he wasn't that way at all. The list goes on.

I was hoping for a balanced approach, with perhaps some new information regarding Elizabeth of York. That was not to be. Instead, we're subjected to yet another writer trying to pass off her opinion as fact.

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