The End of the House of Lancaster

The End of the House of Lancaster

By R L Storey  Sutton 278pp. £12.99. ISBN 0-7509-2007-6

No revisionism here in another reissue of a classic statement of the now widely accepted view that it was the weak and indecisive personality of Henry VI that was a prime cause of the self- destructive bloodletting we know as the Wars of the Roses. This elegant study shows how Henry's lack of leadership fatally interwove with deep-seated social discontent and a lost war in France to create an explosion. A stronger monarch could well have ridden out the storm.The book is notable for its skilful blend of political analysis and description of events: many of them unfamiliar, as the Yorkist and Lancastrian affinities jockeyed for power.

Nigel Jones is the author of Rupert Brooke: Life, Death & Myth (Metro, 1999).