Welsh Journals

THE LIFE AND Times OF HENRY VII. By Neville Williams. Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1973. Pp. 224; 16 colour plates, 100 illustrations. £ 2.65. This recent addition to the 'Kings and Queens of England' series, pub- lished under the general editorship of Antonia Fraser, exhibits most of the virtues and some of the vices of the numerous volumes already issued. It is primarily a picture-book, to which a somewhat thin and hastily composed text has been provided. In this instance, the text has been conjured up by an experienced and scholarly biographer who, if not exactly expert in this period, understands what it is all about and can expound the matter in an intelligible fashion without garbling or too much over-simplification. Dr. Williams is able to put over in a popular way some of the results of the researches undertaken by a number of scholars over the last two or three decades. In a work of this type, it is difficult to unravel the complexities of institutional, financial, and diplo- matic history in sufficient detail without over-burdening the general readers for whom the book is intended. Dr. Williams in large measure does overcome this difficulty, even though at times his desire to exploit the 'picturesque' outruns his scholarly caution. Too many hackneyed but exploded myths are reproduced. Nevertheless, the author does succeed in conveying an awareness of the problems and complexities involved. In a sense the strongest portions of the book are those which are the most conventional in substance, such as the descriptions of court life and intellectual and literary development, and there are useful and fresh passages on economic and social affairs. Another difficulty, however, in composing books of the 'life and times' variety lies in the fact that it is often hard, if not impossible, to say how far the 'times' were in any meaningful sense part of the 'life'. Lack of available valid evidence often prevents-or should prevent- us from making assertions or jumping to conclusions about royal or other personages who are the victims of popular biographical enterprises. There is no justification for biographers, even popular ones, to pretend to know what is unknowable. Thus, Dr. Williams is convinced (p. 23) that Henry VII 'became enamoured of a Breton girl who bore him a son named Roland de Velville'. But this allegation has always rested on the slenderest foundation and cannot be sustained.1 Worse still, he asserts that before their wedding on 18 January 1486, Henry and Elizabeth 'had in fact been living together' (p. 37). We all know that Prince Arthur was an eight-month-old baby, but this circumstance, of course, does not make the unwarrantable and most improbable assertion, for which no evidence is known to exist, into 'a fact'. Andra Nelki is certainly to be congratulated on the 'picture research' that went into the splendid collection of illustrations. But it is most regrettable that the publishers fail to provide a list of these and any adequate indication of the provenance of their sources. The general editor's rhapsodic Introduction is mercifully brief and wholly redundant. It is also unjust to Dr. Williams, who does not 'greet the memorable victory of Henry VII at Bosworth Field, with the benefit of hindsight', as 1 See ante, Vol. 3 (1967), pp. 287-89.