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Richard I: The Crusader King (Penguin Monarchs)
by Thomas AsbridgeRichard I's reign is both controversial and seemingly contradictory. One of England's most famous medieval monarchs and a potent symbol of national identity, he barely spent six months on English soil during a ten-year reign and spoke French as his first language. Contemporaries dubbed him the 'Lionheart', reflecting a carefully cultivated reputation for bravery, prowess and knightly virtue, but this supposed paragon of chivalry butchered close to 3,000 prisoners in cold blood on a single day. And, though revered as Christian Europe's greatest crusader, his grand campaign to the Holy Land failed to recover the city of Jerusalem from Islam.Seeking to reconcile this conflicting evidence, Thomas Asbridge's incisive reappraisal of Richard I's career questions whether the Lionheart really did neglect his kingdom, considers why he devoted himself to the cause of holy war and asks how the memory of his life came to be interwoven with myth. Richard emerges as a formidable warrior-king, possessed of martial genius and a cultured intellect, yet burdened by the legacy of his dysfunctional dynasty and obsessed with the pursuit of honour and renown.
Richard II and the Rebel Earl
by A. K. GundyThe reign of Richard II and the circumstances of his deposition have long been subject to intense debate. This new interpretation of the politics of the late-fourteenth century offers an in-depth survey of Richard's reign from the perspective of one of the leading nobles who came to oppose him, Thomas Beauchamp, the Appellant Earl of Warwick. This is the first full-length study of one of Richard II's opponents to explore not only why the Earl rebelled against the King, but also why Richard lost his throne. Rather than offering the traditional explanation of a subject grown too mighty, Alison Gundy sets Warwick's rule in the context of the political and constitutional framework of the period. The interplay of local and national events helps to reveal Warwick's motives as a long-serving member of the nobility faced with a king determined to rule in a manner contradictory to contemporary political structures.
Richard II: A Brittle Glory (Penguin Monarchs)
by Laura AsheRichard II (1377-99) came to the throne as a child, following the long, domineering, martial reign of his grandfather Edward III. He suffered from the disastrous combination of a most exalted sense of his own power and an inability to impress that power on those closest to the throne. Neither trusted nor feared, Richard battled with a whole series of failures and emergencies before finally succumbing to a coup, imprisonment and murder.Laura Ashe's brilliant account of his reign emphasizes the strange gap between Richard's personal incapacity and the amazing cultural legacy of his reign - from the Wilton Diptych to Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Piers Plowman and The Canterbury Tales.
Richard III
by Charles RossRichard III ruled England for a mere twenty-six months, yet few English monarchs remain as compulsively fascinating, and none has been more persistently vilified. In his absorbing and universally praised account, Charles Ross assesses the king within the context of his violent age and explores the critical questions of the reign: why and how Richard Plantagenet usurped the throne; the belief that he ordered the murder of "the Princes in the Tower"; the events leading to the battle of Bosworth in 1485; and the death of the Yorkist dynasty with Richard himself. In a new foreword, Professor Richard A. Griffiths identifies the attributes that have made Ross's account the leading biography in the field, and assesses the impact of the research published since the book first appeared in 1981. "A fascinating study on a perennially fascinating topic… the base against which will be measured any future research."--Times Higher Education Supplement
Richard III and the Death of Chivalry
by David HipshonThe conventional view of Richard III's defeat at the Battle of Bosworth Field in 1485 is that it was due to a loss of support for him after his usurpation of the throne. However, David Hipshon argues that the result might very well have been in his favour, had not his support for James Harrington in a long-running family feud with Thomas, Lord Stanley led to the latter betraying him. Bosworth was the last English battle in which the monarch relied on feudal retainers: at Stoke two years later professional mercenaries were the key to Henry VII's victory. The author examines how the power politics of the conflict between the Stanleys and the Harringtons, and Richard's motives in supporting the latter, led to the king's death on the battlefield, the succession of the Tudors to the throne of England, the 'death of chivalry' and the end of the Middle Ages.
Richard III and the Princes in the Tower
by A. J. PollardA look at the original sources and depictions that have informed our view of Richard III through history
Richard III in the North
by M. J. TrowThis enlightening biography examines the life and short reign of England’s most controversial king and his relationship to the region he loved.Was Richard III the world’s most wicked uncle, or is he merely the victim of historical slander? Forever associated with the murder of his nephews, he was the last king to die in battle, in 1485. His life was as spectacular as the discovery of his bones under a Leicester car park five centuries later—an event that revived age-old debates.This detailed look at Richard’s life focuses on the area that he loved and made his own. As Lord of the North, he had castles at Middleham and Sheriff Hutton, Penrith, and Sandal. He fought the Scots along the northern border and on their own territory. His son was born at Middleham and was invested as Prince of Wales at York Minster, where Richard planned to set up a college of 100 priests.His white boar device can be found in obscure corners of churches and castles; his laws gave rights to his loyal subjects north of the Trent. And when he felt threatened during the Wars of the Roses, it was to the men of the North that he turned for support and advice. M.J. Trow’s biography demonstrates that the North is the key to understanding this fascinating and complex king.
Richard III's 'Beloved Cousyn': John Howard and the House of York
by John Ashdown-HillIn 1455 John Howard was an untitled and relatively obscure Suffolk gentleman. Thirty years later, at the time of his death at the Battle of Bosworth Field, he was Earl Marshal, Duke of Norfolk, Lord Admiral and a very rich man (and his direct descendant is Duke of Norfolk today). How had Howard attained these elevations? Through his service to the House of York, and in particular to King Richard III during the setting aside of Edward V.John Ashdown-Hill examines why Howard chose to support Richard, even ultimately at the cost of his life; what secrets he knew about Edward IV; what he had to do with the fate of the 'Princes in the Tower;' and what naval innovations, hitherto ascrided to the Tudors, he promoted. Based on original research and containing previously unpublished material, Richard III's 'Beloved Cousyn' is an important contribution to Ricardian scholarship.
Richard III: A Failed King? (Penguin Monarchs)
by Rosemary HorroxNo English king has so divided opinion, both during his reign and in the centuries since, more than Richard III. He was loathed in his own time for the never-confirmed murder of his young nephews, the Princes in the Tower, and died fighting his own subjects on the battlefield. This is the vision of Richard we have inherited from Shakespeare. Equally, he inspired great loyalty in his followers. In this enlightening, even-handed study, Rosemary Horrox builds a complex picture of a king who by any standard failed as a monarch. He was killed after only two years on the throne, without an heir, and brought such a decisive end to the House of York that Henry Tudor was able to seize the throne, despite his extremely tenuous claim. Whether Richard was undone by his own fierce ambitions, or by the legacy of a Yorkist dynasty which was already profoundly dysfunctional, the end result was the same: Richard III destroyed the very dynasty that he had spent his life so passionately defending.
Richard III: Brother, Protector, King
by Chris Skidmore'Fresh, gripping and vivid' Simon Sebag Montefiore 'Exhaustively researched and scrupulously even-handed' David Starkey 'A portrait that chills you to the bone' Leanda de Lisle, The TimesA dedicated brother and loyal stalwart to the Yorkist dynasty for most of his early life, Richard's personality was forged in the tribulation of exile and the brutality of combat. An ambitious nobleman and successful general with a loyal following, he could claim to have achieved every ambition in life except one: the crown.By stripping back the legends that surround England's most controversial king and returning to original manuscript evidence, Chris Skidmore's compelling biography reveals Richard III as contemporaries saw him.
Richard III: Brother, Protector, King
by Chris SkidmoreThe last Plantagenet king remains one of England's most famous and controversial monarchs. There are few parallels in English history that can match the drama of Richard III's reign, witnessed in its full bloody intensity. A dedicated brother and loyal stalwart to the Yorkist dynasty for most of his early life, Richard's personality was forged in the tribulation of exile and the brutality of combat. An ambitious nobleman and successful general with a loyal following, Richard was a man who could claim to have achieved every ambition in life, except one.Within months of his brother Edward IV's early death, Richard stunned the nation when he seized the throne for himself and disinherited his nephews. Having put to death his rivals, Richard's two-year reign would become one of the most tumultuous in English history, ending in treachery and with his death on the battlefield at Bosworth.Chris Skidmore's biography strips back the legends that surround Richard's life and reign, and by returning to original manuscript evidence, he rediscovers the man as contemporaries saw him. Rather than vindicate or condemn, Skidmore's compelling study presents every facet of Richard's personality as it deserves to be seen: as one of the most important figures in medieval history, whose actions and behaviour underline the true nature of power in an age of great drama, upheaval and instability.Read by Roger Davis(p) 2017 Orion Publishing Group
Richard III: Classic Histories Series (Classic Histories Series)
by Michael HicksRichard III has been written off in history as one of England’s evil kings. His usurpation of the throne from his nephew Edward V and then subsequent generations of pro-Tudor historians ensured his fame as the disfigured murderer portrayed by Shakespeare. In the twentieth century, Richard found his apologists, those who saw him as more sinned against than sinning.This biography – by the leading expert on Richard – strips away the propaganda of the centuries to rescue Richard from his critics and supporters alike, providing a balanced and compelling portrait of this most infamous of kings.
Richard III: England's Black Legend
by Desmond SewardWith the recent discovery of Richard III's remains, a newly-revised edition of the celebrated biography of England's most notorious king. With the victory of Henry Tudor, the usurping dynasty made an effort to besmirch the last Plantagenet's reputation, and some historians claim that Richard's "black legend" is nothing more than political propaganda. Yet such an interpretation, as Desmond Seward shows in this powerfully-argued book, suggests a refusal to face the facts of history. Even in the king's lifetime there were rumors about his involvement in the murders of Henry VI and of his nephews, the "Princes in the Tower," while his reign was considered by many to be a nightmare, not least for the king himself. The real Richard III was both a chilling and compelling monarch, a peculiarly grim young English precursor of Machiavelli's Prince. Sweeping aside sentimental fantasy, this is a colorful, authoritative biography that offers a definitive picture of both the age and the man.
Richard III: England's Most Controversial King
by Chris Skidmore“A bold and fresh new biography of one of the most enduringly fascinating monarchs . . . steeped in the latest research and majestically narrated.” —Dan Jones, award-winning historian and New York Times–bestselling author of The PlantagenetsFrom acclaimed historian Chris Skidmore comes the authoritative biography of Richard III, England’s most controversial king, a man alternately praised as a saint and cursed as a villain.Richard III is one of English history’s best known and least understood monarchs. Immortalized by Shakespeare as a hunchbacked murderer, the discovery in 2012 of his skeleton in a Leicester parking lot re-ignited debate over the true character of England’s most controversial king.Richard was born into an age of brutality, when civil war gripped the land and the Yorkist dynasty clung to the crown with their fingertips. Was he really a power-crazed monster who killed his nephews, or the victim of the first political smear campaign conducted by the Tudors?In the first full biography of Richard III for fifty years, Chris Skidmore draws on new manuscript evidence to reassess Richard’s life and times.Richard III examines in intense detail Richard’s inner nature and his complex relations with those around him to unravel the mystery of the last English monarch to die on the battlefield.“This highly readable chronicle comprises vaulting ambition, familial betrayal, moral corruption, high politics, foul murder and a beautiful queen lusting for revenge.” —Wall Street Journal“[Skidmore's] biography bids fair to become the definitive account for the 21st century.” —Washington Independent Review of Books“A gripping, vivid, fresh portrait of Richard III.” —Simon Sebag Montefiore“A portrait that chills you to the bone.” —The Times of London
Richard III: Loyalty Binds Me (Fact and Fictions)
by Matthew Lewis&“Bust[s] some commonly held myths that have built up about Richard III over the centuries, most coming from Shakespeare&’s famous play . . . eye-opening.&” —Sarah Bryson, author of La Reine Blanche: Mary Tudor, a Life in Letters King Richard III remains one of the most infamous and recognizable monarchs in English or British history, despite only sitting on the throne for two years and fifty-eight days. His hold on the popular imagination is largely due to the fictional portrayal of him by William Shakespeare which, combined with the workings of five centuries of rumor and gossip, has created two opposing versions of Richard. In fiction he is the evil, scheming murderer who revels in his plots, but many of the facts point towards a very different man. Dissecting a real Richard III from the fictional versions that have taken hold is made difficult by the inability to discern motives in many instances, leaving a wide gap for interpretation that can be favorable or damning in varying degrees. It is the facts that will act as the scalpel to begin the operation of finding a truth obscured by fiction. Richard III may have been a monster, a saint, or just a man trying to survive, but any view of him should be based in the realities of his life, not the myths built on rumor and theater. How much of what we think we know about England&’s most controversial monarch will remain when the facts are sifted from the fictions? &“He&’s been portrayed as one of history&’s biggest baddies—and Shakespeare shares the blame for that.But now historian and author Matt Lewis is out to right the wrong done to Richard III.&” —Shropshire Star
Richard III: The Maligned King
by Annette CarsonRichard III, King of England from 1483 to 1485, made good laws that still protect ordinary people today. Yet history concentrates on the fictional hunchback as depicted by Shakespeare: the wicked uncle who stole the throne and killed his nephews in the Tower of London.Voices have protested during the intervening years, some of them eminent and scholarly, urging a more reasoned view to replace the traditional black portrait. But historians, whether as authors or presenters of popular TV history, still trot out the old pronouncements about ruthless ambition, usurpation and murder.After centuries of misinformation, the truth about Richard III has been overdue a fair hearing. Annette Carson seeks to redress the balance by examining the events of his reign as they actually happened, based on reports in the original sources. She traces the actions and activities of the principal characters, investigating facts and timelines revealed in documentary evidence. She also dares to investigate areas where historians fear to tread, and raises some controversial questions.In 2012 Carson was a member of Philippa Langley’s Looking For Richard Project, which provided important new answers from the DNA-confirmed discovery of the king’s remains. Her involvement in Langley’s Missing Princes Project, with its international research initiative on the ‘princes in the Tower’, has now informed her revelatory extra chapter.
Richard III: The Self-Made King
by Michael HicksThe definitive biography and assessment of the wily and formidable prince who unexpectedly became monarch—the most infamous king in British history The reign of Richard III, the last Yorkist king and the final monarch of the Plantagenet dynasty, marked a turning point in British history. But despite his lasting legacy, Richard only ruled as king for the final two years of his life. While much attention has been given to his short reign, Michael Hicks explores the whole of Richard&’s fascinating life and traces the unfolding of his character and career from his early years as the son of a duke to his violent death at the battle of Bosworth. Hicks explores how Richard—villainized for his imprisonment and probable killing of the princes—applied his experience to overcome numerous setbacks and adversaries. Richard proves a complex, conflicted individual whose Machiavellian tact and strategic foresight won him a kingdom. He was a reformer who planned big changes, but lost the opportunity to fulfill them and to retain his crown.
Richard John Neuhaus
by Randy BoyagodaA brilliant biography of one of the intellectual mavericks of 20th Century Catholicism. Richard John Neuhaus (1936-2009) was one of the most influential figures in American public life from the Civil Rights era to the War on Terror. His writing, activism, and connections to people of power in religion, politics, and culture secured a place for himself and his ideas at the center of recent American history. William F. Buckley, Jr. and John Kenneth Galbraith are comparable -- willing controversialists and prodigious writers adept at cultivating or castigating the powerful, while advancing lively arguments for the virtues and vices of the ongoing American experiment. But unlike Buckley and Galbraith, who have always been identified with singular political positions on the right and left, respectively, Neuhaus' life and ideas placed him at the vanguard of events and debates across the political and cultural spectrum. For instance, alongside Abraham Heschel and Daniel Berrigan, Neuhaus co-founded Clergy Concerned About Vietnam, in 1965. Forty years later, Neuhaus was the subject of a New York Review of Books article by Garry Wills, which cast him as a Rasputin of the far right, exerting dangerous influence in both the Vatican and the Bush White House. This book looks to examine Neuhaus's multi-faceted life and reveal to the public what made him tick and why.
Richard M. Nixon (The American Presidents Series)
by Elizabeth DrewRichard M. Nixon was the only president ever forced out of office. Elizabeth Drew explains how his troubled inner life offers the key to understanding his presidency. The Watergate scandal, which was an overreach of his power, ended his presidency.
Richard M. Nixon and European Integration: A Reappraisal
by Joseph M. Siracusa Hang Thi Thuy NguyenThis book re-examines the Nixon administration’s attitude and approach to the European integration project. The formulation of US policy towards European integration in the Nixon presidential years (1969-1974) was conditioned by the perceived relative decline of the United States, Western European emergence and competition, the feared Communist expansionism, and US national interests. Against that backdrop, the Nixon administration saw the need to re-evaluate its policy on Western Europe and the integration process on this continent. Underpinning this study is the extensive use of newly-released archival materials from the Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, the Library of Congress, and the State Department. Furthermore, the work is based on the public papers in the American Presidency Project and the materials on the topic of European integration and unification in the Archive of European Integration. Finally, the study has extensively used newspaper archives as well as the declassified online documents, memoirs and diaries of former US officials. Mining these sources made it possible to shed new light on the complexity and dynamism of the Nixon administration’s policy towards European integration.
Richard M. Nixon: A Life in Full
by Conrad BlackFrom the late 1940s to the mid-1970s, Richard Nixon was a polarizing figure in American politics, admired for his intelligence, savvy, and strategic skill, and reviled for his shady manner and cutthroat tactics. Conrad Black, whose epic biography of FDR was widely acclaimed as a masterpiece, now separates the good in Nixon-his foreign initiatives, some of his domestic policies, and his firm political hand-from the sinister, in a book likely to generate enormous attention and controversy. Black believes the hounding of Nixon from office was partly political retribution from a lifetime's worth of enemies and Nixon's misplaced loyalty to unworthy subordinates, and not clearly the consequence of crimes in which he participated. Conrad Black's own recent legal travails, though hardly comparable, have undoubtedly given him an unusual insight into the pressures faced by Nixon in his last two years as president and the first few years of his retirement.
Richard Ned Lebow: A Pioneer in International Relations Theory, History, Political Philosophy and Psychology
by Richard Ned LebowThis is the first of four volumes to be published as part of this book series, on the life and work of Richard Ned Lebow. In a career spanning six decades, Richard Ned Lebow has made important contributions to the study of international relations, political and intellectual history, motivational and social psychology, philosophy of science, and classics. He has authored, coauthored or edited 30 books and almost 250 peer-reviewed articles. These four volumes are excerpts from this corpus. The first volume includes an intellectual autobiography, bibliography, and assessments of Lebow's contributions to diverse fields by respected authorities. It shows how a scholar's agenda evolves in response to world events and his efforts to grapple with them theoretically and substantively. It elaborates pathways for addressing these events and their consequences in an interdisciplinary manner, and offers new concepts and methods for doing so. Richard Ned Lebow (USA) is Professor of International Political Theory in the Department of War Studies, King's College London and James O. Freedman Presidential Professor Emeritus at Dartmouth College and also a Bye-Fellow of Pembroke College, University of Cambridge He has taught strategy and the National and Naval War Colleges and served as a scholar-in-residence in the Central Intelligence Agency during the Carter administration. He held visiting appointments at the University of Lund, Sciences Po, University of Cambridge, Austrian Diplomatic Academy, Vienna, London School of Economics and Political Science, Australian National University, University of California at Irvine, University of Milano, University of Munich and the Frankfurt Peace Research Institute. He has authored and edited 30 books and nearly 250 peer reviewed articles. Contributors to the book are: Simon Reich - Mervyn Frost - Janice Gross Stein - Stefano Guzzini - Markus Kornprobst - Harald Müller - Christian Wendt - Robert English.
Richard Ned Lebow: Essential Texts on Classics, History, Ethics, and International Relations
by Richard Ned LebowThis last one out of four volumes by Richard Ned Lebow in this book series focuses on various fields of social sciences and their connection to international politics. The author writes about topics in psychology, tragedy, and ethics. All of these fields are being put into relation with political aspects, especially international relations.
Richard Ned Lebow: Key Texts in Political Psychology and International Relations Theory
by Richard Ned LebowThis third out of four volumes by Richard Ned Lebow in this book series includes texts on psychology and international relations, causation, counterfactual analysis. The political psychology contributions draw on richer, ancient Greek understandings of the psyche and offer novel insights into strategies of conflict management, the role of emotions in international relations, and the modern fixation on identity.
Richard Nixon and Europe
by Luke A. NichterThe US-European relationship remains the closest and most important alliance in the world. Since 1945, successive American presidents each put their own touches on transatlantic relations, but the literature has reached only into the presidency of Lyndon Johnson (1963–9). This first study of transatlantic relations during the era of Richard Nixon shows a complex, turbulent period during which the postwar period came to an end, and the modern era came to be on both sides of the Atlantic in terms of political, economic, and military relations.