Welsh Journals

of Henry's legendary riotous youth it is assumed that the reader knows the details and how they are not historically accurate. But as a work aimed at the more academic market it fails to tackle the main interpretive problems. It is perhaps of significance here that she appears not to know Christopher Allmand's excellent Historical Association pamphlet. A thoroughgoing study of Henry's wars in the light of recent research might now again be useful; a study of 'England (and Wales) without Henry' is still urgently wanted; but do we really need another book of this type? It remains only to add that Mrs. Labarge's publishers have done her reasonably well. But surely a book that has a lot of campaigning and sieges in it needs more than one cramped map? A. J. POLLARD Teesside Polytechnic RICHARD III AND His EARLY HISTORIANS. By Alison Hanham. Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1975. Pp. 230. £ 8.50. Mrs. Hanham has provided an invaluable service to historians by submitting to a close critical examination the major narrative sources, and some documentary material associated with them, for the usurpation and reign of Richard III. Her arguments are expounded with force and clarity, and her judgements generally command respect. Much of very great interest emerges, including an illuminating discussion of Sir Thomas More's 'Satirical Drama', which is full of new and interesting ideas. Again and again she highlights the tenuous and conflicting nature of the evidence, particularly for the reign of Edward V: it is no wonder that the period has become a happy hunting-ground for ingenious speculation. One of her major conclusions, which Richard's modern defenders will find hard to rebut, is that 'many of the major items of so-called Tudor propaganda against Richard were charges that had already been levelled against him in England in the first weeks of his reign'. Emphatically, he was believed to be an evil man in his own lifetime. Further, Mrs. Hanham's care in going back to the original sources wherever possible has brought to light many valuable corrections on points of detail; for example, the improbable statement in the printed text of the 'Crowland Chronicle' that John Howard, first duke of Norfolk, fled from Bosworth Field, is shown to be the result of a printer's error. Two caveats must be entered. First, this is definitely not a book for the uninitiated. Although Mrs. Hanham provides a useful short account of the events of 1483-85 as a maypole around which to weave her ribbons of evidence, only those with some previous acquantance with the sources and the general problems of the reign will be likely to appreciate at its proper worth her scholarly and tightly-argued discussion of the material. Secondly, Mrs. Hanham has herself contributed to the confusion of the usurpation phase by proposing a revised date for the execution of William, Lord Hastings. Her views have been challenged by distinguished critics, and her attempted rebuttal of their views in this book fails to carry conviction. It is also unfortunate that she continues to accept Sir J. G. Edwards's misleading views as to the date of the 'Crowland Chronicle',