This book is well overdue. Offering new editions of eight texts that are central to our understanding of the Wars of the Roses, along with accompanying notes, provide students and scholars with an accessible compendium of writing in English from during, or soon after, the Wars. Five of the texts chosen are detailed accounts of short periods of time: The First Battle of St Albans, The Siege of Bamburgh Castle, the Chronicle of the Rebellion in Lincolnshire, The History of the Arrival of Edward IV, and The Manner and Guiding of the Earl of Warwick. The other three are more traditional chronicles in that they record events over an extended period of time: The Continuation of Gregory's Chronicle, Howard's Chronicle (previously known as Hearne's Fragment), and Warkworth's Chronicle. Embree and Tavormina's introduction guides the reader through the key questions and scholarship concerning the authorship, standpoint and different manuscript versions of each of the texts. This is thorough and careful work. The introduction also identifies some of the main challenges posed by the texts. For example, in reference to The First Battle of St Albans (found in two manuscripts: John Vale's Book and a Chancery document) the editors tell us that "the text is so freighted with meaning at the expense of concrete fact" (18) that it needs to be read in the context of other documents in order to establish the actions and motivations of the principle actors. The notes that accompany the texts (which in fact cover more pages in the book that the texts themselves) are particularly valuable in explaining and expanding the accounts: identifying people, clarifying movements, connecting events with changes in law and coinage, and so forth. In this way the book is extremely satisfying to read, and takes the reader on an adventure, opening up the texts into the wider cultural and historical landscape.
Some of the narratives in this collection are contemporary with events they relate, and others are written with hindsight. They present differing political viewpoints, and at times they flatly contradict each other. By putting these narratives together in one book Embree and Tavormina show us the messiness of history. This is not an attempt to create a single narration by collating different accounts. Rather, the competing elements of the narratives are highlighted, as are those elements distinctive to particular accounts. What Embree and Tavormina offer with this book is an insight into different ways that events of the Wars of the Roses were recorded and disseminated, and the ways that political standpoints influenced the choices that writers made.
While the notes are consistently valuable, some are written more assuredly than others. The notes to The History of the Arrival are particularly rich because they provide helpful paraphrasing (313), explore the chronicler's capacity for drama and propagandistic descriptors (306), offer interesting postulations that invite us to question the text (310), and provide stylistic comments (314). The notes to The Rebellion in Lincolnshire display a similar command of the material. Some of the notes to other texts are not as rich. In particular, they do not generally comment on stylistic elements. While Embree and Tavormina observe the distinctive writing of Gregory's Chronicle and the key this provides to the author's character, they do not regularly consider whether specific stylistic choices were made in order to influence a reader's or listener's interpretation. Similarly, in their notes to ll. 28-42 of The First Battle of St Albans, they note, but do not analyse, the manipulative power of the language used. There are many times when the editors speculate on the development of events, and I would have also enjoyed more of their speculation on stylistic elements, particularly as they identify themselves as "literary scholars rather than historians" (ix).
This line between literature and history is a fine one to draw when reading lay accounts of contemporary events in the vernacular, in fifteenth- and early-sixteenth-century England. In fact, Embree and Tavormina often function as historians. While they frequently do this well, there are occasions when they seem to back away from the complex arguments concerning interpretation which the texts require, and settle for a surface reading. At times, underlying assumptions can disrupt the authors' generally useful insights in the notes, as they grapple with the texts. For example, they note that the chronicler Howard focusses on Henry VI's deficiencies as the subject of the council that deposed Henry and adopted Edward IV as king (100 in the text; 250 in the notes), but state that "the real target was Margaret" (250). Their source for this is Scofield's The Life and Reign of Edward IV (1923). This is overly simplistic. Howard's chronicle does not mention Margaret at this point. Moreover, as Howard's Chronicle is written during the reign of Henry VIII, and well after Margaret's death in 1482, there is no reason for Howard not to identify Margaret as the target if he believed that were the case. Also overly simplistic is the note that Cade is identified by the chronicler of Gregory's Chronicle as "sympylle" and "sory" (55 in the text; 196 in the notes), betraying the chronicler's delight in denigrating him. While this may well be the case, it is also possible to read this passage in a more nuanced way, comparing Cade to Malpas, and making moral judgement on the circumstances. Embree and Tavormina also dismiss many of Howard's mistakes, suggesting that they can be accounted for by an old man's poor memory. However, it is evident that Howard, when writing, drew on a number of sources including Gaguin, The Great Chronicle of London, Fabyan's New Chronicles and quite probably other London chronicles. In this context his numerous errors might beg other questions, but these are not addressed. Occasionally the notes are also frustrating in not providing sources. This is not common, but does happen, leaving the reader wondering where certain ideas come from (e.g. 248 and 252). These criticisms, however, are minor, and do not significantly impact on the value of the work. Rather, the detailed unpacking of the chronicles in this volume, and the cross referencing to other primary sources, as well as to secondary sources, fills a gap in our materials for developing a deeper understanding of the Wars of the Roses. It also offers us a jumping off point for further examination of these texts, and related texts.
The quality of editorial work in the book is excellent. Textual notes, a glossary, and an extensive bibliography are present, as well as the explanatory notes. The print and font are easy to read (a significant improvement on the earlier editions of these texts), the explanatory notes are useful and interesting. It is a valuable addition to both the scholar's and the student's library. The authorial humour scattered through the notes is also much appreciated, and elevates reading the notes to a real pleasure. Those few shortcomings that can be identified serve primarily to remind the reader how well the task of editing, contextualizing, and annotating has generally been undertaken. This is a book I will return to frequently, both for study and pleasure.