Wars of the Roses

The Myth of the Cousins’ War: A Guest Post by Leanda de Lisle

A hearty welcome to Leanda de Lisle! As I said in my last post, I thoroughly enjoyed her new book, Tudor: The Family Story. And now, here is Leanda:   The Wars of the Roses are so over. The power struggle between the red rose House of Lancaster and the white of York, has a …

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New Books!

Good morning! I wanted to start out by mentioning that Leanda de Lisle’s excellent nonfiction book, Tudor: Passion. Manipulation. Murder. The Story of England’s Most Notorious Royal Family is now on sale, both here in the United States and in the UK (under the title Tudor: The Family Story). I was fortunate enough to read it a …

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The Indomitable Duchess: Alice Chaucer, Duchess of Suffolk

[This post was originally done as a guest post for Sarah’s History Blog. Sarah can now be found blogging at her excellent Henry III blog.] In what would prove to be his last letter, William de la Pole, Duke of Suffolk, preparing to sail off into exile, wrote a letter to his young son, John, …

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The Queen’s Sister: Cecily, Viscountess Welles

Cecily, the third daughter of Edward IV and Elizabeth Woodville and the second to survive adolescence, was born at Westminster on 20 March 1469. It seems likely that one of her godmothers was her grandmother, Cecily, Duchess of York. Young Cecily was less than a month old when she became the topic of international gossip: …

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Arms and the Man: Was Edmund Tudor Illegitimate?

Recently, historian John Ashdown-Hill published a book called Royal Marriage Secrets, in which he purports to uncover evidence that Edmund Tudor, father of Henry VII, was not the son of Owen Tudor but of Edmund Beaufort—evidence, in short, that would entail renaming an entire dynasty. The speculation does have some basis in fact. Following the …

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Twelve Rules for Writing About the House of Lancaster: A Writer’s Guide

As I mentioned in my last post, I’ve been looking at the search terms that people use to reach my website and blog. It’s becoming alarmingly clear that while authors of Wars of the Roses books and screenplays are fairly adept at creating Yorkist characters (keywords: noble, strong, beautiful, loyal), some are still a little …

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The Ten Warning Signs You Might Be a Bride of Gloucester

As most regular readers of this blog have gathered, I’m not a great admirer of Richard III, though I find the man and his times fascinating and am very grateful for the work of the Richard III Society in making more information about both available. And while I’m not keen on the man himself, I …

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