David Bret

The Yorkist Kings & the Wars of the Roses David Bret

Edward IV has always been overshadowed by his controversial younger brother, Richard III. Such was his reputation that he is often most remembered for his pursuit of pleasure-the archetypal medieval royal playboy. There was considerably more to him than this. During the first half of his reign, he was an astute military technician-almost on a par with Henry V. He never once lost a battle and during his campaigns invariably triumphed over seemingly unsurmountable odds. Edward was a big man, extremely courageous, and a level-headed strategist at home and abroad. He was a personal, charming and approachable monarch, revered and respected by his subjects. The second half of his reign finds him entirely different. With his Treasury solvent after being stretched to the limit financing the quelling of a decade's civil unrest, and with England enjoying a peace marred only by the murky intrigues of his brother, Clarence, Edward found himself at liberty to indulge in his fancies. He lived, loved, and spent more extravagantly more than any king before him. Though devoted to his queen, Elizabeth Woodville, he played the field-there were hundreds of women, and at least one male lover. He threw lavish parties which were the talk of Europe, and sadly ate himself into an early grave, dying while still in his prime, and leaving England to face the most chaotic phase in its history thus far, and with its greatest and still unsolved mystery: the Princes in the Tower. Also in this series: The Yorkist Kings & The Wars Of The Roses: Richard III