Lady Jane Grey Reference Guide

As Richard spends his teenage years under the watchful gaze of his older brother, King Edward IV, he is eventually placed in the household of their cousin, the Earl of Warwick, remembered as the Kingmaker, but as the relationship between a king and his most influential magnate breaks down, Richard is compelled to make a choice that defines more than a decade of his life when the House of York fractures. After another period in exile, Richard returns to become most powerful nobleman in England, controlling the North on his brother’s behalf. The work he involves himself in during the years that follow demonstrates a drive and commitment, but also a dangerous naiveté. Richard becomes immersed in and a focal point of northern life, culminating in a campaign into Scotland that leads all the way to Edinburgh.

When crisis hits England in 1483, it is to Richard that his older brother turns on his death bed. The events of 1483 remain contentious and hotly debated, but by understanding the Richard who began that year, it will become clearer what may have driven some of his actions and decisions. As king, the obsessions that drove his work in the north move to the national stage. Having developed a close and deeply loyal group of followers as Duke of Gloucester, Richard must try to emulate that across a nation pushed to caution. This book will seek out the man behind the myths, not look to create the monster of Shakespeare that has clung to the popular imagination for centuries, nor to become lost in admiration. Returning to primary sources and considering the issues of evidence available, this new life aims to present a real man living in difficult times.’

Those interested in the period will surely have heard of Penda, Offa, and Æthelflæd, Lady of the Mercians ‒ but remarkably there is no single book that tells their story in its entirety, the story of the great kingdom of the midlands.

Historically, the records are in two halves, pre- and post-Viking, in the way they have been preserved. Pre-Viking, virtually all the source material was written by the victims, or perceived victims, of Mercian aggression and expansion. Post-Viking, the surviving documents tend to hail from places which were not sacked or burned by the Northmen, particularly from Wessex, the traditional enemy of Mercia. The inclusion of those records here allows for the exploration of Mercia post-924.

Mercia ceased to be a kingdom when Alfred the Great came to power, but its history did not end there. Examining the roles of the great ealdormen in the anti-monastic reaction of the tenth century, through the treachery of Eadric Streona in the eleventh, and the last, brave young earls who made a stand against William the Conqueror, this book shows the important role the Mercians played in the forging of the English nation.’