Ralph A. Griffiths

What kind of biography relegates twenty percent of its subject's life to just two pages?

A nine hundred page biography, that's what.

This is considered the biography of that strange, incompetent, mentally ill, martyred (pick your adjective) monarch, Henry VI -- the only English king to have been deposed twice. Certainly it gives just about every scrap of available information about the period. About the king -- hard to say. There is a lot we don't know about Henry VI (including, notably, the show more illness that drove him mad. Porphyria? Schizophrenia? There just isn't enough data, although I strongly suspect the latter). If you want to get such information as we have, you can pretty much be sure it's in here.

If you can find it. The book really is too long -- there is too much in here that isn't really about Henry VI. It's a pain to sift. And... it doesn't really illuminate. Take my comment about the book relegating twenty percent of Henry's life to two pages. I'm referring to the ending, from his (first) deposition in 1461 until his murder in 1471. There is no real discussion of what was going on -- just a bare summary of the fact that Henry's wife Margaret of Anjou made a deal to get him back on the throne, and her attempt failed, and afterward, Henry was found conveniently dead. Griffiths doesn't even discuss the oft-repeated canard that Richard III, rather than Edward IV, was responsible for the whole thing -- Richard isn't really mentioned in the whole book.

Ultimately, Griffiths presents much data about, but no insight into, Henry VI. There is desperate need for a good scholarly study of the last Lancastrian king. This isn't it. But maybe you could make it into that study -- if you cut the first 898 pages by about sixty percent, replacing that sixty percent with about a third that amount of analysis, and then increased the last two pages by at least fifty. show less

I cannot praise this book highly enough. This volume, covering the years 1066-1485, has half as many pages more than the last and the next volume, but not a page wasted, not a word wasted. I did get confused with the many Edwards and Henrys but there is a very useful chronology two family trees - genealogies of royal lines - to help the reader. With just 14 illustrations, 5 maps and an all-important index, this really is an excellent example of the series properly called A Very Short show more Introduction.

The last chapter is entitled Towards a Nation. It covers Royal Administration, Parliament, the Anglicized Church, Devotional Writings, Lollardy, the Spread of Literacy and the English Language, English Architecture and English Nationhood. I feel I should read it all again, just to try to implant in my memory more of my nation's history, but perhaps there is not time for this!

This title is highly recommended. Not only does it make me look forward to reading the next title in the series - The Tudors - but it makes me hope I have time to read more of the longer works about British history, show less

Having just passed the half way point, I have stopped reading this book for the moment, as it is taking up too much valuable reading time. It is an immensely detailed (900 pages) academic study of Henry VI's reign, but is too specialised for the general reader in Medieval history (even quite an avid one like me). I can admire the scholarly achievement, but it is just too hard to read through, lacking a narrative drive. I will return to it and try the second half of the book when I next get a show more late Medieval penchant. show less

As I embarked on this book, my first thought was that half the middle ages were missing, starting as it did in 1066. A quick examination of the cover revealed that Anglo Saxon Britain had its own Very Short Introduction. As I got the end it was apparent that there was more England than Britain, or at least the discussion of the rest of the British Isles was in the context of English invasion. That said, there is a lot of history crammed into a small format. So much so that it can hardly be show more recommended for he reader with no familiarity with Medieval history - such a reader is too likely to quickly get lost. show less