Customer Reviews

Lancastrian Kings and Lollard Knights Hb (Oxford University Press academic monograph reprints)

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This remarkable book (or rather two and a 1/5 books) was originally a series of lectures by McFarlane, which were prepared by G. L. Harriss for book format (I am guessing after McFarlane's death). The text remains practically the same as the original lectures but footnotes have been included as well as appendices. The immediate positive from the lecture format is that the reading is very clear, easy to understand, and not immensely detailed (especially some of the years of Henry IV's reign) for it was written for the lecture hall. That is not to say that this is not a scholarly work for it certainly is! This is not for the medieval English history uninitiated! However, there are some flaws that arise from this format, mainly, the lack of citations. There are a few footnotes every other page but sometimes he writes, "the chroniclers say this" leaving the reader with no idea which chronicler etc. The second half is different since it looks specifically at the historical records on Lollard heresy.

Contents and clarification of the title:

The first section the volume, the 'Lancastrian Kings' part, deals with the deposition of Richard II (6 January 1367 - 14 February 1400) by the future Henry IV (3 April 1367 - 20 March 1413) and his subsequent reign. This is one of the most recent and one of the ONLY books on Henry IV written (this hard to believe since this was published in the 70s). The image we have of this king has been overshadowed by Shakespeare's plays which reduce him to a background figure dominated by his son Henry V, however, he was a remarkable king who was immensely popular in his day. He was well read (a list of books he owned is in the appendix), attempted to get some famous scholars to come to England (such as Christine de Pisan - one of the first female historian of much note), managed to survive the crises that occurred in Parliament after his usurpation, the first king since the Conquest who used English as his primary writing language, the first King whose handwritten documents remain en masse, and the first English king to have gone to the Holy Sepulcher (Richard the Lionhearted did not even get to Jerusalem). This is not to say his reign was immensely successful since he had set a dangerous precedent murdering his cousin Richard II after he had usurped the throne. McFarlane does an excellent job explaining the attempts to legitimize Henry IV's claim to the throne and the popular support that the king faced during his invasion of England, prior to becoming king, and while an exile in the French Court.

The next section is a "personal" portrait of Henry V. This section, unlike so many lousy "medieval portraits of famous medieval men and women" is a scholarly attempt to put together a picture of the actual "man" behind the famous Henry V facade know to most of the public for saying 'We few, we happy few, we band of brothers.' This is useful for the field of history since his political and military activities are well known while the "actual person" is less known.

The third section (essentially the second half) is "not a search into the origins of the Lollard's beliefs... Rather its aim is to discover the circumstances in which the movement [followers of the reformer Wycliffe] arose, to explain how and why it spread and to identify the influences" (pg 140). In 1382, the teaching of Wycliffe was at last officially and publicly condemned. The supression of the heresy began in Henry IV's reign (another one of his "achievements"). This section looks only at the first generation of Lollards and, unlike the previous two sections, this one takes an IN DEPTH look at the sources for our knowledge on the movement.

This is an amazing source for those interested in the Lollard Heresy, the reign of Henry IV, and anyone who wants to read a very well written book on later Medieval England. The lecture format makes the information easier to synthesis since it was originally meant for oral comprehension. Definitely a worthwhile buy!