Review: The Brothers York: A Royal Tragedy by Thomas Penn

The Brothers York: A Royal Tragedy

by Thomas Penn

Release Date: June 16,  2020

2020 Simon Schuster

Hardcover & Ebook Editions; 688 Pages

ISBN: 978-1451694192

ASIN: B07Z44P4KC

Audiobook: B07RWDSJ6W

Genre: Non-Fiction / Historical / Medieval

Source: Review copy from publisher

4 / 5 Stars

Summary

n 15th-century England, two royal families, the House of York and the House of Lancaster, fought a bitter, decades-long civil war for the English throne. As their symbols were a red rose for Lancaster and a white rose for York, the conflict became known as the Wars of the Roses.

During this time, the house of York came to dominate England. At its heart were three charismatic brothers—King Edward IV, and his two younger siblings George and Richard—who became the figureheads of a spectacular ruling dynasty. Together, they looked invincible.

But with Edward’s ascendancy the brothers began to turn on one another, unleashing a catastrophic chain of rebellion, vendetta, fratricide, usurpation, and regicide. 

 

My Thoughts

The Brothers York was a fascinating look at the relationship between the King Edward IV, George, and King Richard III during one of the most bitter wars for the English throne.  And while I thoroughly enjoyed the way the author presented his information, and the descriptions of the battles and other scenes were very well done, I still felt like there was something missing throughout that took me quite a while to figure out.

 

Honestly, the story of Lancaster and York has more treachery, deceit, backstabbing, and secrets than anything you would find in a fiction novel which is why I think the lives of these men have fascinated historians and readers alike for centuries. Even though I have been reading about this time period for years, every new telling still makes me squirm when I read about the horrors that men will do to others all in the quest of a throne and power.  There were a lot of changes happening in Europe during this time period, with the emergence of a rather stronger France, difficulties with Burgundy and Scotland, new technologies in a lot of areas including warfare, and a lot of disputes over trade.  With a weak king in England, the time was ripe for some sort of rebellion to occur.

 

I did think the author wrote about the events concisely and with interesting detail. To be fair, I soak these types of books up as I have a huge interest in this time period and the more I learn, the more I am fascinated.  At the same time, I did feel like there was something lacking and it took a bit of reflection to figure out exactly what it was as the details and descriptions of the time period were quite good.  What was missing was the passion and the drive behind all of these actions. I just felt like the deeper insight into what really drove the people involved was missing and how the actions influenced each other into doing what they did.  While the author did a really great job analyzing the events, there was little to no discussing analyzing people's emotions and the effect they would have had on each other. With such a tightly knit group, all actions would have had consequences on everybody else.  For example, how such men involved actually gained their power and influence was not really discussed, you just had to accept it as it was, but in this world, men didn't just rise to be powerful, they had to have done something, or cemented alliances that would enable this.  These were passionate men who risked everything so a little bit more insight into their motives would have been nice.  I also felt the author didn't do Richard III justice, but focused more on the negative things during his reign rather than on his legacy, most of which was ignored in the book. Although he only reigned for two years, he definitely implemented a lot of changes that were beneficial to the people. Yes, he had his issues, and I don't agree with what he did to Edward V, but I did feel the author was less forthcoming with his part of the story. 

 

Verdict

The Brothers York was definitely gripping and worth the read. Edward, Clarence, and Richard had a complicated relationship bred during difficult times and had known little other than war and stress.  However, the story did lack deeper understanding and analysis of the motivations behind the actions and I would have liked to have seen more development of the relationships between the people and how they influenced each other into making the choices they did.  A bit more depth would have made this book amazing.