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 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








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."

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.

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

"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.