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Review
"A brilliant biography that brings us as near as we are ever likely to come to this elusive personality." Sunday Times "A powerful, compulsively readable portrait." Observer "Much learning, skillfully deployed as here, evokes pleasure as well as admiration." R.L. Storey, Times Literary Supplement"
Observer
"A powerful, compulsively readable portrait."
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
A murdered saint or a dreadful ruler? an impressive re-assessment of the third Lancastrian king
20 Mar 2007
Format:Paperback
Henry VI is the youngest monarch ever to have ascended the English throne. He was the only English king to have been acknowledges by the French as rightfully King of France. His reign was the third longest since the Norman conquest. He came close to being declared a saint.
Was he the unworldly, innocent, and saintly monarch as history seems to remember him or was he first of all an ineffectual ruler during whose rule his country descended into chaos? The Wars of the Roses began in full during Henry's reign. Where does the legend come from?
In whose interest was legend?
This masterly study, offering informative details, examines the entire span of the king's reign, from the death of Henry V in 1422, when Henry was only nine months old, to the period of his insanity at the beginning of the Wars of the Roses and his dethronement in 1461, preceding his murder ten years later.
This is a classic re-assessment of the third Lancastrian king and its reading is for anyone interested in the history of fifteenth-century England an essential. It offers much food for thought. No easy reading, but gratifying and getting close to this elusive king and his time. A murdered saint or a dreadful ruler? Well, maybe he was both and maybe one could not be the first without being the second....
Was he the unworldly, innocent, and saintly monarch as history seems to remember him or was he first of all an ineffectual ruler during whose rule his country descended into chaos? The Wars of the Roses began in full during Henry's reign. Where does the legend come from?
In whose interest was legend?
This masterly study, offering informative details, examines the entire span of the king's reign, from the death of Henry V in 1422, when Henry was only nine months old, to the period of his insanity at the beginning of the Wars of the Roses and his dethronement in 1461, preceding his murder ten years later.
This is a classic re-assessment of the third Lancastrian king and its reading is for anyone interested in the history of fifteenth-century England an essential. It offers much food for thought. No easy reading, but gratifying and getting close to this elusive king and his time. A murdered saint or a dreadful ruler? Well, maybe he was both and maybe one could not be the first without being the second....
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Bertram Wolffe produces an excellent revisionist view on Henry VI which I found compelling back in the early 1980s and I see no good reason to deviate from his findings today. The Tudor mythology is totally exploded in a powerful and well informed piece of writing and a more sinister figure emerges: a King, who far from being a Saint, demonstrates incompetence on a colossal scale, total cowardice and a vindictiveness towards members of his family that few traditional historians were prepared to take any notice of, blinded as they were by Shakespeare. Clearly in the hands of Wolffe Henry becomes that worst type of medieval monarch, "too capable to be ignored but incapable of following any consistent or independent line of policy." (D M Loades) All in all a challenging, persuasive and formidable thesis which in my view stands up very well to the attempts of post revisionist historians to restore Henry to the position of a helpless vegetable. Thoroughly recommended.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
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3 reviews
12 of 13 people found the following review helpful
Study in politics...
7 Jun 2006
Format:Paperback
Bertram Wolffe's biography on Henry VI actually read more like a study of politics instead of a biography of a king. The politics involves the inner working of the court of Henry VI as he grew from a child king to an adult king. We really don't get to know Henry personally but understand him by his official actions as King of England and working of his advisors, favorites and office holders.
But one thing the author make very clear in this book was that Henry VI was truly an incompetent man and his ineptitude as a ruler marked him as an unworthy monarch. But its also clear that he was let down by almost everyone around him. Premature death of his father left a power vacuum around the young king and Henry was unlucky enough to have self-interest men around him who probably ruined him during his formative years. Foundation of his father kept things stable for awhile but cracks began to show because Henry wasn't capable and neither were men around him. In some ways, he seem to compared favorably with Henry III although the third Henry was more lucky.
If there is a major weakness in this book, it appears that the book get weaker as Henry VI get weaker on the throne. His last ten years get a mere 15 pages even although it was probably one of the more exciting parts of his personal life.
This book appears to be well researched and well written but it seem to be geared toward people who are well versed in English mediveal history. A novice reading this book may feel bit overwhelmed by massive amount of information regarding English mediveal politics of this time period.
Overall, this book does come highly recommended, although not a great biography of any sort, its a great study of English politics prior to the War of the Roses. Its explained the working of the English policies and reflects well why they lost all that Henry V have won for them.
But one thing the author make very clear in this book was that Henry VI was truly an incompetent man and his ineptitude as a ruler marked him as an unworthy monarch. But its also clear that he was let down by almost everyone around him. Premature death of his father left a power vacuum around the young king and Henry was unlucky enough to have self-interest men around him who probably ruined him during his formative years. Foundation of his father kept things stable for awhile but cracks began to show because Henry wasn't capable and neither were men around him. In some ways, he seem to compared favorably with Henry III although the third Henry was more lucky.
If there is a major weakness in this book, it appears that the book get weaker as Henry VI get weaker on the throne. His last ten years get a mere 15 pages even although it was probably one of the more exciting parts of his personal life.
This book appears to be well researched and well written but it seem to be geared toward people who are well versed in English mediveal history. A novice reading this book may feel bit overwhelmed by massive amount of information regarding English mediveal politics of this time period.
Overall, this book does come highly recommended, although not a great biography of any sort, its a great study of English politics prior to the War of the Roses. Its explained the working of the English policies and reflects well why they lost all that Henry V have won for them.
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful
Short on detail
29 Aug 2006
Format:Paperback
Bertram Wolffe's biography is readable and entertaining, however, the vast majority of the book describes Henry's relationship with France and how he squandered his father's legacy in Normandy. As mentioned in a previous review, the book is woefully short on detail regarding the Wars of the Roses. The book could have been much more entertaining and informative had it included more detail regarding the last years of Henry's life and the Wars of the Roses.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Weak biography of a weak king
1 July 2011
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
This book is one of the least impressive of the English Monarchs series. The historical issues with Wolffe's analysis are brought out in the Foreword by John Watts. Much of that Foreword is devoted to arguing that Wolffe's book is outdated in its research - that the current view of Henry is that of a "well-intentioned duffer" as opposed to Wolffe's presentation of him as more assertive and personally responsible for the failings of his reign. I think the Foreword would have worked much better following the text. When one reads first thing that the main thesis of the book is now considered wrong, it does not exactly excite the reader to want to go through the book itself. If it had followed the text, Watts's commentary would have been a fine corrective. However, that is not the reason for my problems with the book.
Large sections are poorly written. In much of Part III on "Majority Rule," the paragraphs read like lists of data and they often wander off the thesis statement of the paragraph. My main complaint is that the author very often did not structure paragraphs in a way that highlights the key issues in the paragraphs. It is one data point followed by another, followed by another, followed by another, etc. with a mind-numbing succession of names, many of them never brought up earlier or explained. I ended up trying to pick out the main point amidst an array of data. Very irritating. Sentences also need some editing. Clauses pile on top of clauses, sometimes appropriately, but often with extraneous points thrown into the sentence. I am sure that Wolffe wanted to use these sentential additions to enlighten the reader about context but the effect is confusion and difficulty in following his point. One other very bothersome point to me was that critical points, like the death of the Duke of York, are added in a few sentences at the end of a paragraph, this particular one dealing with the "rebels" in general. (The sentence starts out "In any case York and his son were slain in the melee.." - this for a man who dominates much of the last part of the book.) This "tossing in" of important points in paragraphs that are about broader issues occurs several times and is another example of lack of organization as to what is important in the paragraph and what is not.
This lack of well-written paragraphs is not true of the whole book. The first section on Henry's minority is much better organized and written. So are parts of the last third of the book. But the really important section about Henry's last years and the Lancaster-York war is quickly (in fact, very quickly) glossed over. In this section a great number of important events are crammed together and again the reader has a sense of a string of "facts" tossed together to make a paragraph. Given the importance of this time period, the lack of any developed explanation is a real weakness.
As Watts notes, the book emphasizes Henry's role in the loss of the English possessions in France. Even if Henry was more passive that Wolffe makes him, there is real drama that shines through at times in these sections amidst the lists of research points masquerading as paragraphs. Despite some bright spots, the book as a whole is not one I would recommend.
Large sections are poorly written. In much of Part III on "Majority Rule," the paragraphs read like lists of data and they often wander off the thesis statement of the paragraph. My main complaint is that the author very often did not structure paragraphs in a way that highlights the key issues in the paragraphs. It is one data point followed by another, followed by another, followed by another, etc. with a mind-numbing succession of names, many of them never brought up earlier or explained. I ended up trying to pick out the main point amidst an array of data. Very irritating. Sentences also need some editing. Clauses pile on top of clauses, sometimes appropriately, but often with extraneous points thrown into the sentence. I am sure that Wolffe wanted to use these sentential additions to enlighten the reader about context but the effect is confusion and difficulty in following his point. One other very bothersome point to me was that critical points, like the death of the Duke of York, are added in a few sentences at the end of a paragraph, this particular one dealing with the "rebels" in general. (The sentence starts out "In any case York and his son were slain in the melee.." - this for a man who dominates much of the last part of the book.) This "tossing in" of important points in paragraphs that are about broader issues occurs several times and is another example of lack of organization as to what is important in the paragraph and what is not.
This lack of well-written paragraphs is not true of the whole book. The first section on Henry's minority is much better organized and written. So are parts of the last third of the book. But the really important section about Henry's last years and the Lancaster-York war is quickly (in fact, very quickly) glossed over. In this section a great number of important events are crammed together and again the reader has a sense of a string of "facts" tossed together to make a paragraph. Given the importance of this time period, the lack of any developed explanation is a real weakness.
As Watts notes, the book emphasizes Henry's role in the loss of the English possessions in France. Even if Henry was more passive that Wolffe makes him, there is real drama that shines through at times in these sections amidst the lists of research points masquerading as paragraphs. Despite some bright spots, the book as a whole is not one I would recommend.
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