The most intriguing of the five for me was Jane Shore, AKA Elizabeth Lambert, the daughter of a fairly well to do London merchant. She had one child at the age of 13, and that child grew up to become Henry VII. Lady Margaret Beaufort was the richest woman in England and, despite being only 5 feet tall, was also considered one of the most dangerous and powerful women in England. He had a brilliant political mind, and both sides vied for his help as they tried to wrestle for control of the kingdom.

John Morton was a priest-lawyer who somehow was skillfully able to switch back and forth between the Lancastrian and Yorkist sides, depending upon who was in power at any given time. John de Vere, Earl of Oxford, was a member of the most ancient and noble family of England and was determined to win back the throne for the Lancastrians. William Hastings’s Manticore Badge depicted him as quite the lady debaucher. He acquired great wealth and influence, but because he was so closely associated with Edward, when the winds of change swept across the land, he was caught on the wrong side and was swiftly beheaded.

He became Edward IV’s closest ally and advisor. William Hastings rose from obscurity by displaying bravery on the battlefield. Desmond Seward has used Barbara Tuchman’s style from A Distant Mirror by telling this story through the eyes of five principle characters. It was frankly an amazing accomplishment that one family was able to keep control of an empire like England for that long of a span of time. The Plantagenets held the throne of England from 1154, with the beginning of the reign of Henry II, until 1485, with the death of Richard III. Richard III’s remains were discovered in 2012, buried beneath a parking lot. The Demise of Richard III at Bosworth Field. Although his sharp face was hidden by the helmet, he could nonetheless be heard shouting ‘TREASON! TREASON!’, over and over again.”

In steel from head to foot, with a jewelled coronet on his helmet, he grasped a steel-handled battle-hammer. All around him lay his dead or dying supporters, while others could be seen fleeing for their lives. ”His horse had become bogged down in some marshy ground so that he had been forced to dismount.

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