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To all of them, war, not peace, was the natural and seemingly permanent state of affairs.' (p. 159) Convincingly, Dr. Tuck argues that in the last years of his reign Richard did not regard the earl of March with affection and in consequence did not favour him as his heir. Since the law of succession to the English Crown had never been precisely defined, Gaunt was a far more plausible candidate (p. 205). If Gaunt and the House of Lancaster were considered as heirs to the throne then Richard's seques- tration of Lancastrian lands and Henry's deposition of his cousin can both be seen simply as anticipations of what nature would have ac- complished more slowly. Henry's final invasion is placed firmly, and rightly so, in the context of French domestic politics. 'Events in France in the summer of 1399 created the essential preconditions for the success of the invasion' (p. 213), for the temporary eclipse of the power of Burgundy and the equally temporary supremacy of Orleans gave Henry his opportunity, and yet Richard could not have foreseen such a reversal of power at the French Court when he sailed for Ireland in May 1399. Dr. Tuck has written an indispensable book: illuminating, deeply researched, succinct and stylish. He sticks closely to his theme and is not led astray by forays into the religious, social or artistic aspects of Richard's reign. His interests are confined to those of the aristocratic class whose motives and actions are his concern. He has restored the seamless web to a reign constantly torn apart by fragmentation into 'gobbets' and has provided a splendid vindication of the study of the reign of Richard II as a special subject in the history syllabuses of so many British universities. But, one wonders, would the period provoke such enduring interest if Thomas of Woodstock (whose uncooperative attitude Dr. Tuck sym- pathetically attributes to financial insecurity, thwarted martial enterprise and an overshadowing elder brother) had successfully deposed his wilful and clever nephew in the winter days of Christmas 1387? CAROLINE BARRON Bedford College, London THE WAR OF THE ROSES. By Hubert Cole. Hart-Davis, McGibbon Ltd., 1973. Pp. 208 £ 2.65. The War of the Roses (so on title-page but 'Wars' on the cover and dust-jacket) is a volume in the series 'The British at War'. As such it attempts to bring the chronic disorder and sporadic pitched battles of the second half of the fifteenth century into the same sort of coherence as 'The Seven Years War' or 'The Peninsular War’­companion titles in the series. Perhaps inevitably this is achieved by following the old view of the period as focused upon the dynastic conflict of York and Lancaster. Mr. Cole has clearly read modern work on the subject which expresses rather different interpretations and he absorbs some of these into his narrative, but the book is primarily a political and military story for a popular audience and as such is perhaps bound to concentrate