Blurb
1483. John de Vere, Earl of Oxford, is now a prisoner. His allies, Warwick and Clarence, are dead. His king, Henry VI, has been murdered. Henry’s son, Prince Edward, lies butchered on the battlefield. Margaret of Anjou is condemned to live in exile. The house of Lancaster is broken.
Then, the warrior-king Edward IV dies unexpectedly. His two young sons are consigned to the Tower by their uncle, who takes power as Richard III. When the princes vanish, the Yorkists start to turn on each other.
The Lancastrian cause, which seemed dead, starts to revive. An obscure Welsh exile, Henry Tudor, proclaims himself King of England and begins to assemble an army. Henry turns to the one man who can lead his army to victory against the battle-hardened Richard III. Oxford’s time has come at last….
My Review
Since these are short novels, I read the first three in quick succession (not realizing there is an upcoming volume 4). These are biographical novels about John de Vere, Thirteenth Earl of Oxford, who apparently lived a charmed life! Was it his title? A staunch Lancastrian, he could easily have met his end at the hands of Edward IV—like his father did—but the king gave him the chance to “redeem” himself and he lay low for long enough to escape the executioner’s sword. Though it seems he was always under a cloud until he broke away and decided to serve the exile Henry Tudor, like it or not:
“Henry is descended of bastard stock through his mother, Margaret Beaufort,” I said. “The Beauforts descend of John of Gaunt and his mistress, Katherine Swynford. Parliament declared them ineligible. Back in the days of Bolingbroke, if memory serves.”
I almost laughed at myself. Why was I reciting all this ancient history and talk of bloodlines? It was irrelevant. Henry Tudor was no more likely to seize the crown than I was to kick through the walls of my prison. He would die in exile, living as a shabby pensioner at the Breton court, or be dragged back to England for a quick beheading.
Not that our protagonist had much of a choice. The Lancastrians were all gone, and he would do anything to help unseat the Yorkists. His accidental birth (his elder brother also met an early demise) placed de Vere into a position he was not particularly suited for, and he spent his whole early life trying to prove himself. Once the Tudor situation presented itself, he had a second chance. And so our tepid warrior found himself to be kind of a heroic figurehead, and he also found his new status a comfortable fit. Through all the books, I found him slightly distasteful, clinging to his hatred of the usurpers but not terribly competent as a leader. Since he lived all the way into Henry VIII’s reign, he was certainly a survivor.
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CW18399R?binding=kindle_edition&qid=1788973350
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