Welsh Journals

THE REIGN OF HENRY VII. By R. L. Storey. Blandford Press, 1968. Pp. xii, 243, 34 illustrations. 36s. Dr. Storey has produced a useful book, primarily for sixth-form purposes, which will provide a much needed insight into the realities of Henry VII's reign. As the author points out in his introduction, it is remarkable how little modern work has been done on Henry VII, and such accounts as exist are almost wholly derived from old-fashioned interpretations of inadequate source material, and are heavily indebted to Bacon's very readable but quite unreliable estimates. Bacon coined many memorable phrases, some of which have found their way into the works of modern historians, but they have never had any valid source value, and have served to mislead rather than to elucidate. Dr. Storey has rid himself of these and similar encumbrances, and has approached the problems with a fresh mind, well-stocked with such materials as have appeared in article form in recent years, including some of his own skilled researches. What he has done, as he himself says, cannot claim to be more than an interim report. A final report, if such a thing is ever possible, will indeed be something remote, for, as he observes, there are many thousands of relevant records that have scarcely been worked at all as yet, and there are several hundred files of documents in the Public Record Office which are still not available for study. It is possible that Dr. Storey has felt obliged to spread himself rather too widely in this book, with the result that the exposition is inclined to become somewhat thin in places, and some of the more complicated themes are over-simplified. To write what is primarily conceived as a school-book, whilst at the same time incorporating some new material and a modest number of references to mostly original sources, is a difficult task, and some danger of falling down between the objectives of the text- book and the work of scholarship has not altogether been avoided. One-fifth of the text is devoted to a rapid survey of 'The Governance of Medieval England' and 'The Wars of the Roses', before we get started on Henry VII's reign. This helps to get the reign into some perspective, but it might have been better to have treated these themes more specifically as a prelude to the main text, rather than to have organized them as the first two chapters of the book itself. We are then given a brief chapter on Henry Tudor's early life and accession, followed by three of about 30 pages each on the inevitable 'Diplomacy and Sedition', 'Central Government', and 'Law and Order'. Thereafter, we have a chapter on 'The Nation at Work', which is presumably intended to be a short survey of the economic history of the reign; then one -on the 'Church', and one on 'Education and the Arts'; not to mention a terse 'Reckoning' on Henry VII, which ends the book on the somewhat oddly-chosen theme of the decline of the Great Council.