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Less well-known than his brothers, Edward IV and Richard III,
little has been written about George, Duke of Clarence, leaving us
with a series of unanswered questions: What was he really like?
What set him and his brother Edward IV against one another? And who
was really responsible for his death? George played a central role
in the 'Wars of the Roses', played out by his family. But was
George for York or Lancaster? Is the story of his drowning in a
barrel of wine really true? And was 'false, fleeting, perjur'd
Clarence' in some ways one of the role models behind the
sixteenth-century defamation of Richard III? Finally, where was he
buried and what became of his body? Could the DNA used recently to
test the remains of his younger brother, Richard III, also reveal
the truth about the supposed 'Clarence bones' in Tewkesbury? Here,
John Ashdown-Hill brings us a new full biography of George, Duke of
Clarence, which exposes the myths surrounding this important
Plantagenet prince, and reveals the fascinating results of John's
recent reexamination of the Clarence vault and its contents.
When Edward IV died in 1483, the Yorkist succession was called into
question by doubts about the legitimacy of his sons (the 'Princes
in the Tower'). The crown therefore passed to Edward IV's
undoubtedly legitimate younger brother, Richard, Duke of
Gloucester. But Richard, too, found himself entangled in the web of
uncertainly, since those who believed in the legitimacy of Edward
IV's children viewed Richard III's own accession with suspicion.
From the day that Edward IV married Eleanor, or pretended to do so,
the House of York, previously so secure in its bloodline,
confronted a contentious and uncertain future. John Ashdown-Hill
argues that Eleanor Talbot was married to Edward IV, and that
therefore Edward's subsequent union with Elizabeth Widville was
bigamous, making her children illegitimate. In his quest to reveal
the truth about Eleanor, he also uncovers fascinating new evidence
that sheds fresh light on one of the greatest historical mysteries
of all time - the identity of the 'bones in the urn' in Westminster
Abbey, believed for centuries to be the remains of the 'Princes in
the Tower'.
Less well-known than his brothers, Edward IV and Richard III,
little has been written about George, Duke of Clarence, leaving us
with a series of unanswered questions: What was he really like?
What set him and his brother Edward IV against one another? And who
was really responsible for his death? George played a central role
in the 'Wars of the Roses', played out by his family. But was
George for York or Lancaster? Is the story of his drowning in a
barrel of wine really true? And was 'false, fleeting, perjur'd
Clarence' in some ways one of the role models behind the
sixteenth-century defamation of Richard III? Finally, where was he
buried and what became of his body? Could the DNA used recently to
test the remains of his younger brother, Richard III, also reveal
the truth about the supposed 'Clarence bones' in Tewkesbury? Here,
John Ashdown-Hill brings us a new full biography of George, Duke of
Clarence, which exposes the myths surrounding this important
Plantagenet prince, and reveals the fascinating results of John's
recent reexamination of the Clarence vault and its contents.
Richard III's Beloved Cousyn.
The Last Days of Richard III contains a new and uniquely detailed
exploration of Richard's last 150 days. By deliberately avoiding
the hindsight knowledge that he will lose the Battle of Bosworth
Field, we discover a new Richard: no passive victim, awaiting
defeat and death, but a king actively pursuing his own agenda. It
also re-examines the aftermath of Bosworth: the treatment of
Richard's body; his burial; and the construction of his tomb. And
there is the fascinating story of why, and how, Richard III's
family tree was traced until a relative was found, alive and well,
in Canada. Now, with the discovery of Richard's skeleton at the
Greyfrairs Priory in Leicester, England, John Ashdown-Hill explains
how his book inspired the dig and completes Richard III's
fascinating story, giving details of how Richard died, and how the
DNA link to a living relative of the king allowed the royal body to
be identified.
A year after Richard III's death, a boy claiming to be a Yorkist
prince appeared as if from nowhere, claiming to be Richard III's
heir and the rightful King of England. In 1487, in a unique
ceremony, this boy was crowned in Dublin Cathedral, despite the
Tudor government insisting that his real name was Lambert Simnel
and that he was a mere pretender to the throne. Now, in The Dublin
King, author and historian John Ashdown-Hill questions that
official view. Using new discoveries, little-known evidence and
insight, he seeks the truth behind the 500-year-old story of the
boy-king crowned in Dublin. He also presents a link between Lambert
Simnel's story and that of George, Duke of Clarence, the brother of
Richard III. On the way, the book sheds new light on the fate of
the 'Princes in the Tower', before raising the possibility of using
DNA to clarify the identity of key characters in the story and
their relationships.
When did the term 'Princes in the Tower' come into usage, who
invented it, and to whom did it refer? To the general public the
term is synonymous with the supposedly murdered boy King Edward V
and his younger brother Richard, Duke of York, sons of Edward IV.
But were those boys genuinely held against their will in the Tower?
Would their mother, Elizabeth Widville, have released her son
Richard from sanctuary with her if she believed she would be
putting his life in danger? The children of Edward IV were declared
bastards in 1483 and Richard, Duke of Gloucester, was offered the
throne. But after Bosworth, in order to marry their sister
Elizabeth of York, Henry VII needed to make her legitimate again.
If the boys were alive at that time then Edward V would once again
have become the rightful king. Following the discovery of some
bones in the Tower in 1674 they were interred in a marble urn in
Westminster Abbey as the remains of the two sons of Edward IV. What
evidence exists, or existed at the time, to prove these indeed were
the remains of two fifteenth-century male children? What did the
1933 urn opening reveal? John Ashdown-Hill is uniquely placed to
answer these questions. By working with geneticists and scientists,
and exploring the mtDNA haplogroup of the living all-female-line
collateral descendant of the brothers, he questions the orthodoxy
and strips away the myths.
From the moment it became public news, the validity of Edward's
marriage to Elizabeth Widville, the beautiful widow of a
Lancastrian knight, was repeatedly called into question. This
alarmed Elizabeth Widville and led her into political killings. She
was terrified that she would lose her crown and that her children
by the king would never succeed to the throne. But after Edward's
death a bishop publicly announced that he had previously married
the king to Lady Eleanor Talbot. As a result, Edward's children by
Elizabeth, including his eldest son and heir to the throne, Edward,
were then declared illegitimate, making Edward's brother Richard
the legitimate heir to the throne. Later, claims were put forward
that Edward had numerous mistresses and left behind many
illegitimate children. Dr John Ashdown-Hill, a central figure in
the Looking for Richard Project and a renowned Richard III
historian with a special talent for getting behind the mythology of
history, now turns his attention to Richard's eldest brother,
Edward IV. He unravels the complex web of stories around Edward's
private life, discussing the truth behind Edward's reputation. Did
Edward have numerous mistresses? Did he produce many bastards? Who
was his legal wife? And what caused the early death of Eleanor
Talbot?
Richard III. The name will conjure an image for any reader:
Shakespeare's hunchback tyrant who killed his own nephews or a
long-denigrated, misunderstood king. This one man's character and
actions have divided historians and the controversy has always kept
interest in Richard alive. However, curiosity surrounding his life
and death has reached unprecedented heights in the aftermath of the
discovery of his skeleton under a Leicester car park. The myths
that have always swirled around Richard III have risen and
multiplied and it is time to set the record straight. John
Ashdown-Hill, whose research was instrumental in the discovery of
Richard III's remains, explores and unravels the web of myths in
this fascinating book.
The Wars of the Roses call to mind bloody battles, treachery and
deceit, and a cast of characters known to us through fact and
fiction: Edward IV, Elizabeth Woodville, Richard III, Warwick the
Kingmaker, the Princes in the Tower, Henry Tudor. But the whole era
also creates a level of bewilderment among even keen readers. John
Ashdown-Hill gets right to the heart of this 'thorny' subject,
dispelling the myths and bringing clarity to a topic often shrouded
in confusion. Between 1455 and 1487, a series of dynastic wars for
the throne of England were fought. These have become known as the
Wars of the Roses. But there never was a red rose of Lancaster ...
This book sets the record straight on this and many other points,
getting behind the traditional mythology and reaching right back
into the origins of the conflict to cut an admirably clear path
through the thicket.
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