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Crown and nobility, 1450-1509

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This collection of ten previously published articles focuses on the later part of the Lancastrian-Yorkist wars, a period long regarded by historians as an era of serious social deterioration, ruled by a "troglodyte aristocracy" engaged in political gangsterism. Both sides in the Wars of the Roses were self-serving and it took Henry Tudor, founder of a new dynasty, to undertake the reconstruction of English society, restore public order and the Crown's purse, and suppress the evils of bastard feudalism. Lander questions most of these opinions, identifying royal propaganda on both sides and attempting to rehabilitate the quality of 15th century public life. Of most interest, I think, are the essays "Marriage and Politics in the Fifteenth Century: The Nevilles and the Wydevilles," "Attainder and Forfeiture, 1453 to 1509," and "Bonds, Coercion and Fear: Henry VII and the Peerage," all of which deal with the English aristocracy in a turbulent time. A very interesting appendix identifies those peers who actually took an active military part in the half-century under discussion, grouping them by family connections and noting how the lineup shifts with each accession of a new monarch.