The Last of the Barons

2440 The Last of the Barons, by Edward Bulwer-Lytton (Lord Lytton) (read 3 Apr 1992) This 1843 book tells the story of the Earl of Warwick from 1467 to his death at the battle of Barnet on Apr 14, 1471. It sticks very close to historical fact and there are but a few invented characters. I think the book is really good--and since it is truer to history than Sir Walter Scott I like it better. Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick (called the Kingmaker) put Edward IV on the throne in 1461, and Henry VI was in prison thereafter till Warwick switched sides--possibly because of Edward IV's attempted rape of Warwick's daughter Anne (later wife to Henry VI's son, and then to Richard III) and Edward IV fled from England and Henry VI resumed the show more throne. Edward IV returned to England and in a month regained the throne. This book has made the period a lot easier to understand than the turgid histories I have read on the Wars of the Roses. I would like to visit the Barnet battlefield, where an obelisk marks the spot where Warwick fell. This has been an excellent book, and I like it better than Bulwer-Lytton's most famous novel The Last Days of Pompeii, which I read July 4, 1967 and don't remember much about.
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