The Windsor secret Book

This slim book is simply stuffed to the brim with primary source illustrations – Bibles, illuminated manuscripts, colorful margins, letters and funerary statues all brought to bright, bright life, 100% or more, showing a window into a past that helps to clarify who’s who in this most convoluted of civil wars.

The text matches the luminosity of the illustrations, detailing the lives of everyone involved without becoming overwhelming.

The book starts with the birth of Henry Bolingbroke, who started the dynastic challenge, and ends with Richard III dead on the battlefield, an ending to the War of the Roses only due to the fact his death meant there were simply no more (adults) left to oppose Henry Tudor’s claim.

It’s a straight forward chronological depiction of events, which I loved as a good, solid basic introduction to the time period and the major players. This was definitely not the place to get too far out into the weeds.