Irish Historical Studies Publications Ltd

Lancastrians, Yorkists and Henry VII by S. B. ChrimesReview by: J. F. LydonIrish Historical Studies, Vol. 14, No. 56 (Sep., 1965), pp. 392-393Published by: Irish Historical Studies Publications LtdStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/30004918 .

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392 REVIEWS AND SHORT NOTICES

more than glimpse them. The book ends with some detailed notes on William's support for the battle of Hastings and Harold's military undertakings immediately before.

The number and diversity of the problems the author has attacked is most impressive; the amount of material, particularly primary material, he has used is equally so. As a critical bibliography the work is excellent; as a book it involves the reader far too severely in difficulties which are properly those of the writer. At some points important questions are given far too short shrift; at others there is more than a hint of argument for argument's sake. For a period so filled with complexities, this is too extravagant a procedure to recommend.

VALERIE 1. J. FLINT

GASCON ROLLS PRESERVED IN THE PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE. Edited by Yves Renouard. Pp. ii, xxxii, 66o. London: H.M. Stationery Office. 1962. £7 7s.

THE principal source for the history of English administration in Gascony is the series of Gascon rolls preserved in the Public Record Office, London. The series consists of I44 rolls covering the period from 38 Henry III to 7 Edward IV, and of these the rolls for Henry III and Edward I have already been published, mainly in the three volumes of ROles Gascons, edited by Charles B6mont. This volume, covering the first half of the reign of Edward II, continues that series and is part of an 'entente franco-britannique' for the publication of common sources by the governments of the two countries. In addition to the full text of the Gascon rolls, the volume contains in a number of valuable appendices the texts of other documents from the P.R.O. relating to Gascon affairs, of which the most interesting is a long report to the English chancellor on the negotiations for an aid for the Scottish war in Guyenne: this provides much new and valuable information on the problem of consent to taxation and should be particularly useful to anyone who is interested in making a comparative study of Irish and Gascon practice. Unlike the early Gascon rolls, which comprise letters patent and close issued in the name of Henry III's son Edward, as lord of Aquitaine, and which in- cluded some important letters relating to Ireland, these rolls contain only one such letter, and that is already known from its enrolment else- where. These rolls, therefore, do not constitute a source for Irish history. Their interest is primarily Gascon and, to a lesser extent, English.

J. F. LYDON

LANCASTRIANS, YORKISTS AND HENRY VHI. By S. B. Chrimes. Pp. xiv, Igo. London : Macmillan. I964. 25s.

Tins is a book which many will regard as old-fashioned, for the author is mainly concerned with straight political history in which the emphasis

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REVIEWS AND SHORT NOTICES 393 is always on dynasties and dynastic interest. It must be admitted that this does not make for easy reading and frequently the working out of family relationships and of landed interests makes the narrative tedious. But in pursuing his purpose unswervingly Professor Chrimes has brought into sharp focus the dramatic theme which Shakespeare perceived in the history of England from the succession of Richard II to the death of Richard III. In the long dynastic struggle which often went under the name of the 'wars of the roses' the prize at stake was often the English crown, and in his narrative the author concentrates on the royal family 'in its public capacity', thus keeping in the foreground of the reader's attention the main theme of the rise and fall of royal dynasties. He gives coherence and order to what is so often incoherent and confusing in works on the fifteenth century. And he brings out what is often suppressed by too slavish adherence to the traditional divisions of English medieval history in most textbooks (A. R. Myer's England in the later middle ages is a noteworthy exception)-the essential continuity between Lancastrian, Yorkist and early Tudor government.

For the Irish reader, however, the book is a disappointment. In keeping with the tradition of English historical scholarship - at least where the medieval period is concerned - the author almost completely ignores Ireland and the part it played in the working out of the story he tells of dynastic struggle and intrigue. This is particularly true of his account of the rise of York and the fall of Lancaster. He lays due stress on the importance of Calais, and emphasises its importance as a spring- board for a Yorkist invasion of England. But it was to Ireland that Richard, duke of York, fled after the rout at Ludford Bridge, where an Irish parliament made him safe despite his attainder by the Lancastrians, and it was from Ireland that he made his triumphant return to England. In his treatment of the fall of Richard III and theNsubsequent difficulties of Henry VII the author again displays the same lack of interest in the part played by the Irish lordship. To him the recognition of Simnel and Warbeck 'retained an air of semi-comedy throughout' (p. 159). But there was nothing comic about the battle of Stoke, which was Bosworth field all over again and was a very close call for Henry. The characters of Simnel and Warbeck may have been comic, but the events they promoted were certainly not. It was to be many years before the new dynasty could relax in England knowing that there was no danger from the west. It is now past time for English historians to pay due regard to medieval lordship of Ireland and the impact it had on English politics in the later middle ages.

J. F. LYDON

THE FIRST WHIGS. By J. R. Jones. Pp. vi, 224. London: Oxford University Press. 196r. 30s.

THE years of Shaftesbury's dominance in English politics, 1678--83, offer a great challenge to historians, which, by and large, has been too much for them. Firth ends too early, Macaulay begins too late and in between

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