| ||||||||||||||||||
 Trade In this Item for up to £0.25
Get an extra £5 when you trade in books worth £10 or more until June 30, 2012. Trade in Richard III the Young King to be for an Amazon.co.uk gift card of up to £0.25, which you can then spend on millions of items across the site. Trade-in values may vary (terms apply). Find more products eligible for trade-in.
|
Frequently Bought Together
Product details
|
More About the Author
Product Description
Product Description
A major new biography of the young Richard III. Richard III is a paradox - the most hated of English kings, yet the most beloved, a deeply pious man, yet materialistic to the point of obsession, puritan, yet the father of at least two illegitimate children. This new biography concentrates on the much neglected early part of Richard's life - from his birth in 1452 as a cadet of the House of York to his marriage to the beautiful Anne Neville - and shows how his experiences as the son of an ambitious duke, a prisoner of war, an exile, his knightly training and awe of his elder brother, King Edward IV, shaped the character of England's most controversial monarch. From the insignificant younger brother of a would-be king to Knight of the Garter, duke, respected soldier and loyal supporter to Edward IV, Richard faced extreme danger and heady triumph, poverty and abundance, neglect and acclamation as the House of York rose to the heights of power and propelled him a glorious career at Court.
About the Author
Josephine Wilkinson is an author and historian. She received a First from the University of Newcastle where she also read for her PhD. She has received British Academy funding for her research in to Richard III's early life and has been scholar-in-residence at St Deiniol's Library, Britain's only residential library founded by the great Victorian statesman, William Gladstone. Her other books include Mary Boleyn and The Early Loves of Anne Boleyn both published by Amberley. The second volume Richard III, From Lord of the North to King of England will be published in 2010. She lives in York.
Tags Customers Associate with This Product(What's this?)Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
|
Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store
If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store.
Learn more
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
19 of 19 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
At last, a book that doesn't just concentrate on Richard's years as King, but provides an insight into the remaining 30 years of his nearly 33 year lifespan. The book is put together very well, putting Richard firmly in the context of the times in which he lived, rather than looking back at a king using the Tudor chroniclers version of his reign. Sadly for Richard, history is always written by winners.
The latter years of the reign of King Henry VI and the protectorship of Richard's father must have been traumatic and frightening for a young boy, especially the barbarous treatment eventually suffered by his father and older brother Edmund and the flight from Ludlow to escape the Lancastrian threat. What happens to us in our childhood must have an effect on the adult we become, and Richard's childhood must have been pretty scary.
The book has a nice balance between the good part of Richard's character, but does not hesitate to point out his faults, especially in his desire to obtain lands belonging to others sometimes whatever the cost. It also shows him as a religious man, despite that fact that he fathered illegitimate children, and he was certainly a brave soldier and able administrator. He does not seem to me to be different from any other powerful mediaeval lord, and we must view his actions not by the standards of today, but by the standards of 15th century England. He is certainly no worse and in my opinion much better than the Tudors, who systematically disposed of every possible Yorkist contender for the throne, even to the appalling treatment on the scaffold of the Countess of Salisbury (who was a very old woman) by Henry VIII!
Loyalty was very important to Richard, and he certainly proved to be Edward IV's mainstay in the north, which certainly helped to keep England stable in the latter years of Edward's reign. Edward obviously valued his brother, and had no hesitation in appointing him Protector before he died. Mind you, this position could be said to be a very poisoned chalice, bearing in mind its pitfalls, the difficulty in reconciling disparate groups, and the fact that staying alive could also be a challenge, as his father and before that Humphrey of Gloucester found out to their cost.
I really enjoyed the book, and it is an excellent introduction to readers who perhaps have not read Shakespeare (which is definitely just a story and could never be described as "real" history)- it will give them a much more balanced view of Richard as a man before he became king.
The latter years of the reign of King Henry VI and the protectorship of Richard's father must have been traumatic and frightening for a young boy, especially the barbarous treatment eventually suffered by his father and older brother Edmund and the flight from Ludlow to escape the Lancastrian threat. What happens to us in our childhood must have an effect on the adult we become, and Richard's childhood must have been pretty scary.
The book has a nice balance between the good part of Richard's character, but does not hesitate to point out his faults, especially in his desire to obtain lands belonging to others sometimes whatever the cost. It also shows him as a religious man, despite that fact that he fathered illegitimate children, and he was certainly a brave soldier and able administrator. He does not seem to me to be different from any other powerful mediaeval lord, and we must view his actions not by the standards of today, but by the standards of 15th century England. He is certainly no worse and in my opinion much better than the Tudors, who systematically disposed of every possible Yorkist contender for the throne, even to the appalling treatment on the scaffold of the Countess of Salisbury (who was a very old woman) by Henry VIII!
Loyalty was very important to Richard, and he certainly proved to be Edward IV's mainstay in the north, which certainly helped to keep England stable in the latter years of Edward's reign. Edward obviously valued his brother, and had no hesitation in appointing him Protector before he died. Mind you, this position could be said to be a very poisoned chalice, bearing in mind its pitfalls, the difficulty in reconciling disparate groups, and the fact that staying alive could also be a challenge, as his father and before that Humphrey of Gloucester found out to their cost.
I really enjoyed the book, and it is an excellent introduction to readers who perhaps have not read Shakespeare (which is definitely just a story and could never be described as "real" history)- it will give them a much more balanced view of Richard as a man before he became king.
24 of 25 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
This is an excellent book. It is well written, well researched and fair.
I liked the way the author explained symbolism and I especially liked the way the book began with a brief look at Richard's astrology. I would have liked a more in depth look at his birth chart as I have been studying it myself. There are a couple of things I felt rather spoiled the book, they are only minor ones. The first is that the type settng and proof reading were not good and there are many words omitted or the wrong word appears - e.g. certainly for certaintity, things like that which are niggling. Also and more important, the author includes a lot of long quotations from early chronicles and I feel the spelling should have been modernised. I am fairly familiar with middle English so it was not an obstacle for me but it would be a problem for readers who were not used to old spelling. Apart from that I feel the spirit of the times has been well captured and I can't think of any other book which has considered all the events from the perspective of Richard and treated him like a person and not a monster or saint as often happens. I sincerely hope she will finish the story very soon.
I liked the way the author explained symbolism and I especially liked the way the book began with a brief look at Richard's astrology. I would have liked a more in depth look at his birth chart as I have been studying it myself. There are a couple of things I felt rather spoiled the book, they are only minor ones. The first is that the type settng and proof reading were not good and there are many words omitted or the wrong word appears - e.g. certainly for certaintity, things like that which are niggling. Also and more important, the author includes a lot of long quotations from early chronicles and I feel the spelling should have been modernised. I am fairly familiar with middle English so it was not an obstacle for me but it would be a problem for readers who were not used to old spelling. Apart from that I feel the spirit of the times has been well captured and I can't think of any other book which has considered all the events from the perspective of Richard and treated him like a person and not a monster or saint as often happens. I sincerely hope she will finish the story very soon.
26 of 28 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
This first volume of Josephine Wilkinson's life of Richard III is a joy to read. It is a meticulously researched biography, elegantly constructed and beautifully written. It is also a fascinating catalogue of late mediaeval intrigues - private intrigues, political intrigues, intrigues with courtly, continental, dynastic, military, even religious dimensions. There is never any doubt where WIlkinson's sympathies lie in wishing to rehabilitate Richard of York, but her analysis of the available material is always balanced and fair. Particularly compelling is her argument that Richard's enduring negative image owes little to historical fact, and much to the efforts of Tudor 'spin doctors' anxious to establish the credentials of their own regime, which was of dubious legitimacy and whose only right to rule stemmed from their marriage into the House of York.
Would you like to see more reviews about this item?
Were these reviews helpful?
Let us know
Most Recent Customer Reviews
Where's Volume !!?
An exhaustively detailed work that convinces the reader that Josephine Wilkinson knows her subject. Somewhat spoilt by some sloppy proof-reading (chaffed for chafed etc) and one... Read more
Published 10 months ago by Michael Parsons (Cardiff, UK)
Readable yet scholarly account of Richard's early life.
Most books on Richard tend to centre on his usurpation of his nephew Edward V's throne in 1483, his subsequent reign and his defeat at the Battle of Bosworth by Henry Tudor in... Read more
Published 14 months ago by K. J. Greenland
Down with the Tudors !
Don't get me wrong, Elisabeth 1 was a brilliant queen, her father Henry V111 was as rotten as she was brilliant. Read more
Published 19 months ago by Mw R. Moore
Finally, Shakespeare's out the window
Richard III by Shakespeare is a really good play, if you take a fictional standpoint. If you take a history standpoint, it is rubbish! Read more
Published on 4 Nov 2009 by Edward Rex
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
Listmania!
Look for similar items by category
- Books > Biography > British Royalty
- Books > Biography > Historical > 1001-1500
- Books > Biography > Historical > Britain > Military
- Books > Biography > Historical > Britain > Norman to Medieval: 1001-1500
- Books > Biography > Historical > Countries & Regions > Europe
- Books > Biography > Historical > Royalty
- Books > Biography > Political > Britain
- Books > History > Britain & Ireland > British Heads of State > Richard III
- Books > History > Britain & Ireland > Ireland
- Books > History > Britain & Ireland > Norman and Medieval 1001-1500
- Books > History > Europe > Vikings, Dark Ages, Medieval Europe 501-1500
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
- I am the Author, and I want to comment on my book.
- I am the Publisher, and I want to comment on this book.
|
