Overview
For historians of the Wars of the Roses William Shakespeare is both a
curse and a blessing: a curse because he immortalized Tudor spin on
fifteenth-century civil wars that helped justify Elizabeth I's
occupation of the English throne; a blessing because, without
Shakespeare's 8 -play Plantagenet history cycle, hardly anyone beyond
specialists in the history of the period would know of their existence.
Moreover, no mere historian will ever paint a more compelling and
dramatic picture of England's Lancastrian and Yorkist kings, and the
Wars of the Roses, than William Shakespeare.The book begins with an
examination of the context, content and significance of each of the
plays from Richard 2nd to Richard 3rd, and then considers the
contemporary, near-contemporary and Tudor sources on which Shakespeare
drew; how such authors chose to present 15th Century kings, politics and
society; and in what ways historians since Shakespeare have sought to
reinterpret the Wars of the Roses era. The book ends with a
retrospective assessment of Shakespeare's Plantagenet plays, both in
performance and as a result of their impact on historical writing.The
Plays: Richard II, Henry IV Parts 1 and 2, Henry V, Henry VI Parts I1, 2
and 3 and Richard III.