Warwick The Kingmaker

Press, Volume XCVII, Issue 28542, 22 March 1958, Page 3

Warwick The Kingmaker

Warwick the Kingmaker. Byl Paul M. Kendall. Allen and Unwin. 365 pp. This book has its setting in Lancastrian and Yorkist England of Edward TV’s time which witnessed the Wars of the Roses. “There are few periods in our annals,” wrote the historian, J. R. Green, “from which we turn with such weariness and disgust as from the Wars of the Roses. Their savage battles, their ruthless executions, their shameless treasons, were all the more terrible from the pure selfishness of the ends for which men fought, the utter want of all nobleness and chivalry in the struggle itself, of all great result in its close.” And yet it was from this period that the monarchy was to emerge—as from a testing time —upon strong foundations. With the defeat of the Lancastrians at Towton Moor on March 29, 1461, Edward IV—with Warwick’s powerful backingascended the throne, being crowned at Westminster on June 28 of that year. Henry VI, the deposed king, and his queen— Margaret of Anjou—fled to Scotland. Unable to arouse sufficient support there, the queen left Henry in Scotland made her way to the court of Louis XI, upon whom her main hopes were now placed. For she believed that with French-Scottish support the Lancastrians might stage a rei covery and oust Edward from the throne. But Louis was not willing to support a failing cause, and he well knew that if he ( threw in his lot with the Lancastrians the Duke of Burgundy I would intervene on the Yorkist

I tide. 1 It is with the first 10 years of | Edward’s reign that this book deals—years in which the three | main problems facing the king were the suppression of LancasI trian feeling, his relations with I France, and with his most powerI ful follower, Richard. Earl of i Warwick. Warwick himself was well aware that relations* with | France and Burgundy were of first importance to the Yorkist regime, and the high intrigue in

which much of his time was emi ployed found him often joumeyi big to and from France. He is made to cut a dashing figure in this book, wherein the author presents his theme as a stirring one, investing it with the romance that attached to. the name of Warwick. He has clearly steeped himself in the literature bearing upon the fifteenth century world, with the result that the historical

background to his narrative is skilfully sketched in; and he conveys well the atmosphere of the time. His narrative is marked, moreover, by a fine literary style. But the style is geared to a high Pitch of enthusiasm on the author’s part such as may not be •hared by the reader, especially it he be one who prefers a mort *?ber, matter-of-fact handling of historical themes. The book contains a bibliography, notes on •ources, and a number of good illustrations.