Description
This book does not maintain that Richard III was innocent of the murders, but sees the present cult of him as a reaction against genuine injustice to his memory: the treating of circumstantial evidence against him as if it were direct evidence, and the loading of his reputation with crimes he did not commit.
Elizabeth Jenkins assesses the influence of the savage struggle of York and Lancaster for the crown, the fatal breach in the family bond caused by Edward IV’s being obliged to put his brother Clarence to death and the wide-spread unpopularity of the Queen, Elizabeth Woodville, and her relatives. The scrupulous attention to the period (always a feature of Elizabeth Jenkins’ books) is particularly fascinating. The Palace of Westminster, the royal apartments in the Tower, and the richness of Edward IV’s life-style are vividly depicted, in such detail as has not been attempted before.
The spectacle of a man of Richard’s capacity for kinship and his excellent record as a soldier and administrator, driven to procure a fearful crime that was also a fearful blunder, is more alarming to the rest of us than the actions of a thorough-paced criminal.
Hard cover, 237 pages. In good to very good preloved condition.