Propaganda in the Wars of the Roses

Colin Richmond analyses the part played by the written (and spoken) word in shoring up popular allegiances to the rival dynasties

In June 1864 Lewis Carroll was in London seeing to the publication of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. On June 22nd he visited Lambeth Palace and while there (he notes in his diary) 'the librarian, Mr Stubbs, showed me some interesting old MSS and relics'. I wonder whether one of those old manuscripts was not Lambeth MS 448: even the most casual reader cannot ignore the great number of decapitations recorded there. Alas, Alice was already with the publishers, so that manuscript cannot be the source for the Queen of Hearts.

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