Hello everyone!
Oh.
My.
GOD.
Can you believe it? I FINISHED THIS BOOK!
I'm not exaggerating when I tell you this one had a similar fate as it's predecessor, aka sitting there on my shelf all abandoned and neglected with a bookmark stuck about halfway through. It's testimony to the fact that I really, really hate leaving things unfinished that I went back and chewed through the rest of the book.
Which, technically speaking, did all happen within two or so days in the end.
Once I sit down to something, there's no telling with what kind of vengeance I'll do it!
Of course if you'll recall, I just always seem to have this kind of problem with the series in general. And what series, do you ask?
Why, Wars of the Roses, of course. And the book is called Bloodline.
Conn Iggulden being who he is for me - namely my favourite historic fiction author so far - I WILL finish this series even if it puts me to sleep for a hundred years. I don't even get why it takes SO FREAKING LONG to read each separate book.
I may make an educated guess and say it drags when the Lancastrians are on the page.
You have to pity the poor souls who were actually living at the time this was happening, if Lancaster was actually the way this is described. I mean I'd want to watch grass grow more than watch the sleepy king do nothing!
But anyway.
As this is the third book in the series, you will find the reviews to the first two, Stormbird and Trinity, at the bottom of the page. Yes, I'm finally moving forward towards Ravenspur. Go me!
Side note: I also want to find a book in which Henry Tudor isn't portrayed like some sort of rapist/plunderer/arrogant idiot, but that's beside the point.
If we quickly recap what's been going on in the books so far:
in Stormbird, we witnessed the marriage between Henry VI and Margaret of Anjou and how quickly things fell apart in England after Henry just ... went to sleep for a while, then woke up and got all hissy for some reason because York managed to keep the kingdom together. This then led, of course, to rebellions, and most notably it was an introduction to the Cousin's War;
in Trinity, we got to see just what happens when you piss off lords that govern half the kingdom, as York gathered supporters to his cause and made a bid for the throne himself, not that it was going to help him any as his head ended up on a spike with a paper crown on top. Victory, at that time at least, belonged to Lancaster, but Queen Margaret was unprepared for what would follow: the ascent of Edward, Duke of York, eldest surviving son of the man she'd beheaded.
This is where Bloodline begins. And a note on the title: it all comes down to who has blood right for the throne.
The book is once again divided into two parts, marked by the years 1461 and 1464.
In 1461, it seems like the Lancasters have the winning hand, because they manage to route Warwick, Norfolk and their forces at St. Albans and reclaim King Henry VI, but their luck doesn't really last long. To win this particular battle (and hopefully war), Margaret had enlisted the help of men from Scotland, who at the time were viewed as mere barbarians by the English.
Their constant squabbles up in Northumberland and further north didn't help, either.
So when the time came to enter London in victory, London closed the gate to their King and Queen, to the shock and horror of everyone, because they knew that there was going to be retribution - or at least, some people knew (namely, in this book, Derry Brewer, the spymaster). For Margaret, she was mostly just enraged that the capital refused her.
But it was a key act in what would follow later, when Edward of York entered London freely and was made welcome; not only that, he was ready, after mourning his father and brother in private, to step up and make himself heard. Described as a giant among men at the time, Edward was crowned Edward IV, King of England, and called upon all lords and retainers to join him in his fight against the decidedly French Queen nobody actually liked.
Small footnote: Margaret didn't do herself any favours by not trying to win the people over.
This is how we end up at Towton, in winter, when no sane person even wants to fight, but Edward brings the battle to Margaret because he can smell blood and he wants revenge for his fallen kin. It's the same for Warwick honestly, and the two of them, with Norfolk bringing up the strong right wing, manage to route and beat the living crud ouf of the Lancastrian army, forcing Margaret to take her son Edward and flee across the Channel to France, leaving her husband behind.
So by the time we go into part two, three years into Edward's reign after Towton, things are starting to look up for England again.
Unlike Henry, Edward is a king people can see, he goes out hunting, he dispenses justice, he talks to them, he passes laws, etc. etc. etc.
He also kind of twists and turns Warwick around a couple of times, first by marrying Elizabeth Woodville and not a French princess, and by signing a deal with Burgundy and not France (probably wanting to invade France, by that same vein). With the Queen at court, however, things start to tighten once again.
Neville favours are reclaimed, and loyal followers of Edward before he married are stripped of rank and land for no other reason than that the Queen wants to shore up her own family - and manages to convince Edward that the Nevilles have too much influence and power.
The line is once again crossed when she makes Edward forbid the marriage of his brother George to Warwick's daughter Isabel, but Warwick has had enough insults by then, and spirits the two to France so they can marry regardless. At around the same time, Edward is taken by other Neville men and held captive.
But this is kind of a mistake for Warwick to make, as he's a popular king, and it ends with him releasing the king after the man signs amnesty papers for the conspirators.
Of course Elizabeth manages to turn events so that someone else accuses Warwick and George of treason against her husband, which means they have to run like the wind for the coast and hopefully to France, not that it helps them as Calais refuses them entry. Warwick has to sail to a different port to then go back to French court (unfortunately, his granddaughter dies on this journey, Isabel giving birth on the ship itself) where the king tells him Margaret of Anjou wants to speak with him again.
And hey, with Edward now so aganist his old friend and mentor, why not make a pact with Margaret?
The things women make men do, right?
So now the stage is set for the last show-down between Margaret and Edward (or Warwick and Edward really), but then of course, while the two are duking it out, someone else is growing up in exile.
A boy known as Henry Tudor.
He will become Henry VII.
How?
Wait until I review Ravenspur.
xx
*image not mine
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