The Wars of the Roses didn't start on the battlefield: Blood Roses traces it back to the beginning. Starting in 1245 with the founding of the House of Lancaster, Kathryn Warner follows a twisted path of political intrigue, bloody war and fascinating characters over 200 years. From the Barons' Wars to the overthrowing of Edward II, Eleanor of Castile to Isabella of France, and true love to Loveday, Blood Roses reframes some of the biggest events of the medieval era - not as stand-alone conflicts, but as part of a long-running family feud that would have drastic consequences.

‘Old John of Gaunt, time-honour’d Lancaster’ John of Gaunt (1340–1399) was the son of one king and the father of another. He claimed a Spanish kingdom via his wife, daughter of King Pedro the Cruel. He was the wealthiest, most powerful and most hated man in England for decades. He had a famous and enduring love affair with his mistress Katherine Swynford, whom he later married. He was sometimes the ally and sometimes the enemy of his capricious nephew Richard II. His descendants battled for control of the kingdom during the Wars of the Roses. Via his three marriages, he was the ancestor of numerous royal and noble families across Europe. John of Gaunt is the first biography of this most intriguing of men to appear for decades, and the first to tell his personal story.

In 1254 the teenage heir to the English throne married a Spanish bride, the sister of the king of Castile, in Burgos, and their marriage of thirty-six years proved to be one of the great royal romances of the Middle Ages. Edward I of England and Leonor of Castile had at least fourteen children together, though only six survived into adulthood, five of them daughters. _Daughters of Edward I_ traces the lives of these five capable, independent women, including Joan of Acre, born in the Holy Land, who defied her father by marrying a second husband of her own choice, and Mary, who did not let her forced veiling as a nun stand in the way of the life she really wanted to live. The women's stories span the decades from the 1260s to the 1330s, through the long reign of their father, the turbulent reign of their brother Edward II, and into the reign of their nephew, the child-king Edward III.

Edward II's death at Berkeley Castle in 1327, murdered by having a red-hot poker inserted inside him, is one of the most famous and lurid tales in all of English history. But is it true? For five and a half centuries, few people questioned it, but with the discovery in a Montpellier archive of a remarkable document, an alternative narrative has presented itself: that Edward escaped from Berkeley Castle and made his way to Ireland, to the pope in Avignon and through Brabant, Cologne and Milan to an Italian hermitage. Was Edward in fact still alive years after his supposed death? Many influential people among his contemporaries certainly believed that he was, and acted upon that belief. In Long Live the King, medieval historian Kathryn Warner explores in detail Edward's downfall and forced abdication in 1326/27, the role played in it by his wife Isabella of France, the wide variation in chronicle accounts of his murder at Berkeley Castle, and the fascinating possibility that Edward lived on in Italy for many years after his official funeral was held in Gloucester in December 1327.

The fruits of new research on the politics, society and culture of England in the fourteenth century. Drawing on a diverse range of documentary, literary and material evidence, the essays collected here consider a wide range of important issues for the period. Political and institutional history is addressed in essays on Edward II's personal expenditure and the development and workings of parliament, including an analysis of those neglected "parliamentarians" of the period, the parliamentary proctors. Important new insights into the social history of the fourteenth century are provided by chapters on marriage and the accumulation of lay estates, the brokerage of royal wardship and the important and difficult subject of sexual violence towards under-age girls. Another chapter considers the enormously costly and complex task of feeding and supplying medieval armies across the "long" fourteenth century, while two final pieces offer important new insights into the material culture of the age, focusing in turn on St Stephen's Chapel, Westminster, and the phenomenon of royal reburial. Richly textured with personal and local detail, these new studies provide numerous insights into the lives of great and small in this fascinating period ofmedieval history. GWILYM DODD is Associate Professor of Medieval History at the University of Nottingham. Contributors: Elizabeth Biggs, Anna M. Duch, Bridget Wells-Furby, Alan Kissane, Ilana Krug, Alison K.McHardy, Seymour Phillips, Laura Tompkins, Kathryn Warner.

Traditionally, the Wars of the Roses - one of the bloodiest conflicts on English soil - began in 1455, when the Duke of York attacked King Henry VI's army in the narrow streets of St Albans. But this conflict did not spring up overnight. Blood Roses traces it back to the beginning. Starting in 1245 with the founding of the House of Lancaster, Kathryn Warner follows a twisted path of political intrigue, bloody war and fascinating characters for 200 years. From the Barons Wars to the overthrowing of Edward II, Eleanor of Castile to Isabella of France, and true love to Loveday, this is a new look at an infamous era. The first book to look at the origins of both houses, Blood Roses reframes some of the biggest events of the medieval era; not as stand-alone conflicts, but as part of a long-running family feud that would have drastic consequences.

The Despensers were a baronial English family who rose to great prominence in the reign of Edward II (1307-27) when Hugh Despenser the Younger became the king's chamberlain, favourite and perhaps lover. He and his father Hugh the Elder wielded great influence, and Hugh the Younger's greed and tyranny brought down a king for the first time in English history and almost destroyed his own family. Rise and Fall tells the story of the ups and downs of this fascinating family from the thirteenth to the fifteenth centuries, when three Despenser lords were beheaded and two fell in battle. We begin with Hugh the justiciar, who died rebelling against King Henry III and his son in 1265, and end with Thomas Despenser, summarily beheaded in 1400 after attempting to free a deposed Richard II, and Thomas's posthumous daughter Isabella, a countess twice over and the grandmother of Richard III's queen. From the medieval version of Prime Ministers to the (possible) lovers of monarchs, the aristocratic Despenser family wielded great power in medieval England. Drawing on the popular intrigue and infamy of the Despenser clan, Kathryn Warner's book traces the lives of the most notorious, powerful and influential members of this patrician family over a 200 year span.

Philippa of Hainault: Mother of the English Nation is the first full-length biography of the queen at the centre of the some of the most dramatic events in English history. Philippa's marriage to Edward III was arranged in order to provide ships and mercenaries for her mother-in-law to invade her father-in-law's kingdom in 1326, yet it became one of the most successful royal marriages and endured for more than four decades. The chronicler Jean Froissart described her as, 'The most gentle Queen, most liberal, and most courteous that ever was Queen in her days.' Philippa stood by her husband's side as he began a war against her uncle, Philip VI of France, and claimed his throne. She frequently accompanied him to France and Flanders during his early campaigns of the Hundred Years War. She also acted as regent in 1346 when Edward was away from his kingdom at the time of a Scottish invasion. She appeared on horseback to rally the English army to victory. Philippa became popular with the people due to her kindness and compassion. This popularity helped maintain peace in England throughout Edward's reign. Her son, later known as the Black Prince - the eldest of her thirteen children - became one of the greatest warriors of the Middle Ages. Her extraordinary life did not escape tragedy: in 1348 three of her children died, almost certainly of the Black Death.

Edward III may be known for his restoration of English kingly authority after the disastrous and mysterious fall of his father, Edward II, and eventual demise of his mother, Queen Isabella. It was Edward III who arguably put England on the map as a military might. This show of power and strength was not simply through developments in government, success in warfare or the establishment of the Order of the Garter, which fused ideals of chivalry and national identity to form camaraderie between king and peerage. The expansion of England as a formidable European powerhouse was also achieved through the traditional lines of political marriages, particularly those of the king of England's own granddaughters. This is a joint biography of nine of those women who lived between 1355 and 1440, and their dramatic, turbulent lives. One was queen of Portugal and was the mother of the Illustrious Generation; one married into the family of her parents' deadly enemies and became queen of Castile; one became pregnant by the king of England's half-brother while married to someone else, and her third husband was imprisoned for marrying her without permission; one was widowed at about 24 when her husband was summarily beheaded by a mob, and some years later bore an illegitimate daughter to an earl; one saw her marriage annulled so that her husband could marry a Bohemian lady-in-waiting; one was born illegitimate, had sixteen children, and was the grandmother of two kings of England.

Hugh Despenser the Younger and Edward II tells the story of the greatest villain of the fourteenth century', his dazzling rise as favourite to the king and his disastrous fall. Born in the late 1280s, Hugh married King Edward I of England's eldest granddaughter when he was a teenager. Ambitious and greedy to an astonishing degree, Hugh chose a startling route to power: he seduced his wife's uncle, the young King Edward II, and became the richest and most powerful man in the country in the 1320s. For years he dominated the English government and foreign policy, and took whatever lands he felt like by both quasi-legal and illegal methods, with the king's connivance. His actions were to bring both himself and Edward II down, and Hugh was directly responsible for the first forced abdication of a king in English history; he had made the horrible mistake of alienating and insulting Edward's queen Isabella of France, who loathed him, and who had him slowly and grotesquely executed in her presence in November 1326.

For the medieval period that was witness to a legion of political and natural disasters, the rise and fall of empires across the globe and one of the most devastating and greatest pandemics human kind has ever experienced, the fourteenth century was transformative. Peering through the looking-glass to focus on one of Europe's largest medieval cities, and centre of an international melting pot on the global stage, this is a social history of England's (in)famous capital and its multi-cultural residents in the first half of the fourteenth century. Using a rich variety of important sources that provide first-hand accounts of everyday life and personal interactions between loved ones, friends, foreigners and foes alike, such as the Assize of Nuisance, Coroners' Rolls, wills, household accounts, inquisitions post mortem and many more, this chronicle begins at the start of the fourteenth century and works its way up to the first mass outbreak of the Black Death at the end of the 1340s. It is a narrative that builds a vivid, multi-layered picture of London's inhabitants who lived in one of the most turbulent and exciting periods in European history.

Isabella of France married Edward II in January 1308, and afterwards became one of the most notorious women in English history. In 1325, she was sent to her homeland to negotiate a peace settlement between her husband and her brother Charles IV, king of France. She refused to return. Instead, she began a relationship with her husband's deadliest enemy, the English baron Roger Mortimer. With the king's son and heir, the future Edward III, under their control, the pair led an invasion of England which ultimately resulted in Edward II's forced abdication in January 1327. Isabella and Mortimer ruled England during Edward III's minority until he overthrew them in October 1330. A rebel against her own husband and king, and regent for her son, Isabella was a powerful, capable and intelligent woman. She forced the first ever abdication of a king in England, and thus changed the course of English history. Examining Isabella's life with particular focus on her revolutionary actions in the 1320s, this book corrects the many myths surrounding her and provides a vivid account of this most fascinating and influential of women.

Hugh Despenser the Younger and Edward II tells the story of 'the greatest villain of the fourteenth century', his dazzling rise as favourite to the king and his disastrous fall. Born in the late 1280s, Hugh married King Edward I of England's eldest granddaughter when he was a teenager. Ambitious and greedy to an astonishing degree, Hugh chose a startling route to power: he seduced his wife's uncle, the young King Edward II, and became the richest and most powerful man in the country in the 1320s. For years he dominated the English government and foreign policy, and took whatever lands he felt like by both quasi-legal and illegal methods, with the king's connivance. His actions were to bring both himself and Edward II down, and Hugh was directly responsible for the first forced abdication of a king in English history; he had made the horrible mistake of alienating and insulting Edward's queen Isabella of France, who loathed him, and who had him slowly and grotesquely executed in her presence in November 1326.

Sex and Sexuality in Medieval England allows the reader a peek beneath the bedsheets of our medieval ancestors, in an informative and fascinating look at sex and sexuality in England from 1250 to 1450. It examines the prevailing attitudes towards male and female sexual behaviour, and the ways in which these attitudes were often determined by those in positions of power and authority. It also explores our ancestors' ingenious, surprising, bizarre and often entertaining solutions to the challenges associated with maintaining a healthy sex life. This book will look at marriage, pre-marital sex, adultery and fornication, pregnancy and fertility, illegitimacy, prostitution, consent, same-sex relationships, gender roles and much more, to shed new light on the private lives of our medieval predecessors.

Richard II is a figure famous in England's national myths - the king who went insane, the narcissist, the tyrant of Shakespeare's play. History regards his rule either as that of a superhuman monarch or a crazed and vicious ruler. But Richard II was a complex and conflicted man - a person with faults and shortcomings thrust into a role that demanded greatness. In this book, Kathryn Warner returns with the first modern biography of Richard II in decades, to paint a portrait of the king with all of his strengths and imperfections left in the picture. An aesthete and patron of the arts as well as a person troubled by a much-maligned 'personality disorder', Richard II here emerges from behind the mask of a theatrical character.

Isabella of France married Edward II in January 1308, and afterwards became one of the most notorious women in English history. In 1325, she was sent to her homeland to negotiate a peace settlement between her husband and her brother Charles IV, king of France. She refused to return. Instead, she began a relationship with her husband's deadliest enemy, the English baron Roger Mortimer. With the king's son and heir, the future Edward III, under their control, the pair led an invasion of England which ultimately resulted in Edward II's forced abdication in January 1327. Isabella and Mortimer ruled England during Edward III's minority until he overthrew them in October 1330. A rebel against her own husband and king, and regent for her son, Isabella was a powerful, capable and intelligent woman. She forced the first ever abdication of a king in England, and thus changed the course of English history. Examining Isabella's life with particular focus on her revolutionary actions in the 1320s, this book corrects the many myths surrounding her and provides a vivid account of this most fascinating and influential of women.

He is one of the most reviled English kings in history. He drove his kingdom to the brink of civil war a dozen times in less than twenty years. He allowed his male lovers to rule the kingdom. He led a great army to the most ignominious military defeat in English history. His wife took a lover and invaded his kingdom, and he ended his reign wandering around Wales with a handful of followers, pursued by an army. He was the first king of England forced to abdicate his throne. Popular legend has it that he died screaming impaled on a red-hot poker, but in fact the time and place of his death are shrouded in mystery. His life reads like an Elizabethan tragedy, full of passionate doomed love, bloody revenge, jealousy, hatred, vindictiveness and obsession. He was Edward II, and this book tells his story. Using almost exclusively fourteenth-century sources and Edward's own letters and speeches wherever possible, Kathryn Warner strips away the myths which have been created about him over the centuries, and provides a far more accurate and vivid picture of him than has previously been seen.

1326 was one of the most dramatic years in English history. The queen of England, Isabella of France, invaded the country with an army of mercenaries to destroy her husband's powerful and detested lover, Hugh Despenser the Younger, and brought down her husband King Edward II in the process. It was also a year, however, when the majority of English people carried on living their normal, ordinary lives: Eleyne Glaswreghte ran her own successful glass-making business in London, Jack Cressing the master carpenter repaired the beams in a tower of Kenilworth Castle, Alis Coleman sold her best ale at a penny and a half for a gallon in Byfleet, and Will Muleward made the king 'laugh greatly' when he spent time with him at a wedding in Marlborough. England sweltered in one of the hottest, driest summers of the Middle Ages, a whale washed ashore at Walton-on-the-Naze, and the unfortunate John Toly died when he relieved himself out of the window of his London house at midnight, and lost his balance. _Living in Medieval England: The Turbulent Year of 1326_ tells the true and fascinating stories of the men and women alive in England in this most eventful year, narrated chronologically with a chapter devoted to each month.