Yale English monarchs

King John is a study of a king and of his time. The early thirteenth century was a period of profound social and political change, and of unprecedented insecurity. Warren explores the king's personality so distorted by the accounts of such chroniclers as Roger of Wendover and Matthew Paris, through his achievements and his failures, but considers him also against the background of his predecessors, of the society in which he lived and of problems independent of his making. The result is a fair-minded, revealing and readable account which analyses the disputed succession, the conflict with France, the clash with Pope Innocent III, and the events leading to Magna Carta. Warren is unsparing in his criticism of King John's failings, but acknowledges the decisive impact of his remarkable personal qualities. A new foreword written for this edition by D. A. Carpenter assesses Warren's achievement in the light of recent scholarship.

"Henry I, son of William the Conqueror, ruled from 1100 to 1135, a time of fundamental change in the Anglo-Norman world. This long-awaited biography, written by one of the most distinguished medievalists of his generation, offers a major reassessment of Henry's character and reign. Challenging the dark and dated portrait of the king as brutal, greedy, and repressive, it argues instead that Henry's rule was based on reason and order.". "C. Warren Hollister points out that Henry laid the foundations for judicial and financial institutions usually attributed to his grandson, Henry II. Royal government was centralized and systematized, leading to firm, stable, and peaceful rule for his subjects in both England and Normandy. By mid-reign Henry I was the most powerful king in Western Europe, and with astute diplomacy, an intelligence network, and strategic marriages of his children (legitimate and illegitimate), he was able to undermine the various coalitions mounted against him. Henry strove throughout his reign to solidify the Anglo-Norman dynasty, and his marriage linked the Normans to the Old English line.". "Hollister describes Henry's life and reign, places them against the political background of the time, and provides analytical studies of the king and his magnates, the royal administration, and relations between king and church. The resulting volume is one that will be welcomed by scholars, students, and general readers alike."--BOOK JACKET.

In 1461 Edward earl of March, a handsome eighteen-year old of massive charisma and ability, usurped the English throne from his vacant Lancastrian predecessor Henry VI. Ten years on, following outbreaks of civil conflict that culminated in him losing, then regaining the crown, he had finally secured his kingdom. The years that followed witnessed a period of rule that has been described as a golden age: a time of peace and economic and industrial expansion, which saw the establishment of a style of strong monarchy that the Tudors would make their own. Yet, argues A. J. Pollard, Edward, who squandered his undoubted talents in a frenzy of sexual and epicurean excess, was a man of limited vision, his reign remaining to the very end the narrow rule of a victorious faction in civil war. Ultimately, his failure was dynastic: barely two months after his death in April 1483, his young son and heir was usurped by Edward's youngest brother, Richard III.