Customer Reviews

The Princes in the Tower

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I read this book many years ago and am purchasing it again since I seem to have lost my copy. I remember it as a very interesting and well-written account of the period. The events of Edward IV's reign have an important bearing on what happened to the Princes, and without a good understanding of those events, the reader cannot possibly comprehend what might have happened to them, and why. I would recommend this book in addition to any other on the period, except Alison Weir, whose twisted logic and biased view of this period has been exposed by Bertram Fields in his excellent book, Royal Blood: The Mystery of the Princes.

Elizabeth Jenkins' book proves to be very misleading in appearance. You would think that with a title "The Princes in the Tower" with cover of two royal blond lads looking very worried in their dank surrounding, you will be reading a book about their mysterious deaths and conditions. However, that is not the real case. The book is about 217 pages long. We don't get to the princes until page 143. What you get until page 143 is rather a generic history of the War of the Roses and reign of King Edward IV, the father of the two blond boys on the cover.

What was unnecessary was the 142 pages of generic background history. Fate of the princes is a specific subject. People who are interested in that subject are already well verse in the background material. Jenkins wasted a lot of dead trees and the reader's time going over matter that most of us knows already.

Once you get past page 143 to the end, you will get some information about the fate of the two princes but its pretty sparse and few as the rest of the book deals with Richard III and his take over. Over the 217 pages, you might get about roughly 30 pages on the title subject and most it you probably read before since there is no great revelation here, nor any great insight as well.

While I admired Jenkins' work in the past, I have to say that this book is definitely one of her lesser efforts. There are nothing new written in this book. It even hard to recommend it for novice reader on the subject since there are other books which proves to quite superior to this one. (I would recommended Alison Weir's Princes in the Tower instead for example.)