The main aim of this book is to consider how and by whom the County Palatine of Chester was governed and administered during the later Middle Ages. It aims to assess how effectively and efficiently the wheels of government operated in this area. The study is based upon a detailed examination of the Palatine records for the years 1442-1485, during the reigns of Henry VI to Richard III.

The Reader's Guide to British History is the essential source to secondary material on British history. This resource contains over 1,000 A-Z entries on the history of Britain, from ancient and Roman Britain to the present day. Each entry lists 6-12 of the best-known books on the subject, then discusses those works in an essay of 800 to 1,000 words prepared by an expert in the field. The essays provide advice on the range and depth of coverage as well as the emphasis and point of view espoused in each publication.

Bosworth stands alongside Naseby and Hastings as one of the three most iconic battles ever fought on English soil. The action on 22 August 1485 brought to an end the dynastic struggle known as the Wars of the Roses and heralded the dawn of the Tudor dynasty. However, Bosworth was also the most famous lost battlefield in England. Between 2005 and 2010, the techniques of battlefield archaeology were used in a major research programme to locate the site. Bosworth 1485: a battlefield rediscovered is the result. Using data from historical documents, landscape archaeology, metal detecting survey, ballistics and scientific analysis, the volume explores each aspect of the investigation _ from the size of the armies, their weaponry, and the battlefield terrain to exciting new evidence of the early use of artillery _ in order to identify where and how the fighting took place. Bosworth 1485 provides a fascinating and intricately researched new perspective on the event which, perhaps more than any other, marked the transition between medieval and early modern England.

Nine historians examine three English civil wars: that during King Stephen's reign, the Wars of the Roses, and that of the 17th century. Their concern is with the interaction of war and society rather than with details of individual campaigns and battles. They place the conflicts within the wider European context and developments in warfare on the continent. Distributed in the US by ISBS. c. Book News Inc.

Thornton also sheds light on areas where popular culture and politics were uneasily interlinked: the powerful political influence of those outside elite groups; the variations in political culture across the country; and the considerable continuing power of mystical, supernatural, and 'non-rational' ideas in British social and political life into the nineteenth century."--Jacket.

This book examines the organisation of power and society in north-east England over two crucial centuries in the emergence of the English 'state'. England is usually regarded as medieval Europe's most centralised kingdom, yet the North-East was dominated by liberties - largely self-governing jurisdictions - that greatly restricted the English crown's direct authority in the region. These local polities receive here their first comprehensive discussion; and their histories are crucial for understanding questions of state-formation in frontier zones, regional distinctiveness, and local and national loyalties. The analysis focuses on liberties as both governmental entities and sources of socio-political and cultural identification. It also connects the development of liberties and their communities with a rich variety of forces, including the influence of the kings of Scots as lords of Tynedale, and the impact of protracted Anglo-Scottish warfare from 1296. Why did liberties enjoy such long-term relevance as governance structures? How far, and why, did the English monarchy respect their autonomous rights and status? By what means, and how successfully, were liberty identities created, sharpened and sustained? In addressing such issues, this ground-breaking study extends beyond regional history to make significant contributions to the ongoing mainstream debates about 'state', 'society', 'identity' and 'community'.

This volume in the Royal Historical Society's Camden Fifth Series is a comprehensive edition of the only surviving northern medieval letter collection.

The conventional view of Richard III's defeat at the Battle of Bosworth Field in 1485 is that it was due to a loss of support for him after his usurpation of the throne. However, David Hipshon argues that the result might very well have been in his favour, had not his support for James Harrington in a long-running family feud with Thomas, Lord Stanley led to the latter betraying him. Bosworth was the last English battle in which the monarch relied on feudal retainers: at Stoke two years later professional mercenaries were the key to Henry VII's victory. The author examines how the power politics of the conflict between the Stanleys and the Harringtons, and Richard's motives in supprting the latter, led to the king's death on the battlefield, the succession of the Tudors to the throne of England, the 'death of chivalry' and the end of the Middle Ages.

Perkin Warbeck, pretender to the English throne, claimed to be Richard of Shrewsbury, Duke of York & Norfolk, the younger of the two sons of Edward IV imprisoned in the Tower of London by Richard III, and whose true fate is unknown to this day. He led two attempts to claim the crown, but was captured by Henry VII and hanged at Tyburn. This book looks at who Warbeck really was, how he was used by those in power in Burgundy, France, Italy, Scotland and Ireland, and the progress of the conspiracy itself. It has often been considered to be a side issue to Henry's reign, but this book reveals how close the conspirators came to bringing about a fundamental change in European politics. Importantly, Ian Arthurson not only sets the plot within the context of what was happening in fifteenth-century Europe, but also reveals important truths about Henry's reign in England. Illustrated with a wealth of contemporary portraits, paintings, engravings and documents, The Perkin Warbeck Conspiracy will appeal to anyone with an interest in fifteenth-century history.

The first systematic study of the financing and management of parish church construction in England in the Middle Ages.