Henry VI and Margaret of anjouco
He became king before his first birthday inheriting a vast empire from his military hero father she was the daughter of a king without power who made an unexpected marriage at the age of fifteen Almost completely opposite in character together they formed an unlikely but complimentary partnership Henry VI and Margaret of Anjou have become famous as the Lancastrian king and queen who were deposed during the Wars of the Roses but there is so much to their story The political narrative of their years together is a tale of twists and turns encompassing incredible highs when they came close to fulfilling their desires and terrible heart breaking lows Personally their story is an intriguing one that raises may questions Henry was a complex misunderstood man enlightened and unsuited to his times and the pressures of kingship In the end overcome by fortune and the sheer determination of their enemies their alliance collapsed England simply wasn t ready for a gentle king like Henry or woman like Margaret who defied contemporary stereotypes of gender and queenship History has been a harsh judge to this royal couple In this discerning dual biography Amy Licence leads the way in a long overdue re evaluation of their characters and contributions during a tumultuous and defining period of British history He became king before his first birthday inheriting a vast empire from his military hero father she was the daughter of a king without power who made an unexpected marriage at the age of fifteen Almost completely opposite in character together they formed an unlikely but complementary partnership Henry VI and Margaret of Anjou have become famous as the Lancastrian king and queen who were deposed during the Wars of the Roses but there is so much to their story The political narrative of their years together is a tale of twists and turns encompassing incredible highs when they came close to fulfilling their desires and terrible heart breaking lows Personally their story is an intriguing one that raises may questions Henry was a complex misunderstood man enlightened and unsuited to his times and the pressures of kingship In the end overcome by fortune and the sheer determination of their enemies their alliance collapsed England simply wasn t ready for a gentle king like Henry or woman like Margaret who defied contemporary stereotypes of gender and queenship History has been a harsh judge to this royal couple In this discerning dual biography Amy Licence leads the way in a long overdue re evaluation of their characters and contributions during a tumultuous and defining period of British history Henry VI and Margaret of Anjou A Marriage of UnequalsMedieval and Tudor historian with a particular interest in womens lives and experiences also dabble in Modernism I write fiction and non fiction also journalism for The Guardian BBC History website The New Statesman The Huffington Post The English Review and The London Magazine I appeared in TV documentaries The Real White Queen and her Rivals and The Private Lives of the Tudors Fellow of the Royal Historical Society Medieval and Tudor historian with a particular interest in women s lives and experiences also dabble in Modernism I write fiction and non fiction also journalism for The Guardian BBC History website The New Statesman The Huffington Post The English Review and The London Magazine I appeared in TV documentaries The Real White Queen and her Rivals and The Private Lives of the Tudors Fellow of the Royal Historical Society site_link An excellent read beautifully written and very engaging I actually felt sorry for Queen Margaret 9781526709752 
Superb My deep respects for Amy Licence for creating a dual biography of this complicated couple whose even complex personalities continue to be seen through a simplistic one dimensional lens 9781526709752 Amy Licence s latest book on Henry VI and Margaret of Anjou is one of her best to date Thoroughly researched and written in such fluent and easy to read style Amy details the turbulent and often confusing life of King Henry VI while also shining a light onto Margaret an often maligned Queen. Book Henry VI and Margaret of anjou-san While I have read quite a lot about Henry VI and Margaret of Anjou a large portion of what I have read only details Margaret s life in relation to her husband She is mentioned often as a side thought or merely reacting to the actions of those around her yet Licence portrays Margaret as her own person She details Margaret s life from her family lineage to her upbringing to the events that saw her become Queen of England She discusses how Margaret s upbringing the events she witnessed the people she knew how these helped to form her beliefs both religious and political Throughout her time as Queen Licence details Margaret s behaviour decisions and reactions as an individual rather than as an extension of her husband It was utterly fascinating to view Margaret in this new light to credit her with her own decisions and thoughts as best as have been recorded and to see that in fact she was a strong determined woman rather than a she wolf seeking nothing but revenge In England she was defined by strict gender roles a woman and a Queen was not to be a political leader Yet growing up in France Margaret had seen strong women become leaders and fighters for what they believed in Margaret was a Queen but she was also a wife and mother and it was these last two relationships that continued to push her forward to fight for her family despite the terrible times she endured Licence also explores Henry s deeply personal religious beliefs and how these affected not only his behaviour as a man but also how it had a huge impact upon the decisions he made or in some cases did not make as a King Henry VI is often portrayed as weak and mad having no personal strength or the ability to make decisions for himself Yet Licence shows that Henry VI could be strong he could be a leader and that he often responded to the situations around him on the basis of strongly held religious beliefs not because he was incapable of doing so I also valued the detail in which events and decisions were described Major political moves were not simply mentioned and glossed over they were discussed with depth with primary letters often included to show a true understanding of the events of the time As a reader I wanted to keep reading to find out what happened next to learn what drove Henry and Margaret to make the extraordinary decisions that they made I thoroughly enjoyed Licence s book on Henry VI and Margaret of Anjou It is clear that she has spent a great deal of time delving into primary sources to gain a deeper understanding of who Henry and Margaret were as people not just as a King and Queen and in doing so has brought their lives to the forefront once I would highly recommend adding this book to your bookshelf 9781526709752 Historically royal marriages have been viewed with such interest A king and a queen who can come from either similar or different backgrounds in order to make their country better or in some cases worse During the Wars of the Roses there were some legendary relationships that shaped the war between the Yorks and the Lancasters Edward IV and Elizabeth Woodville George Duke of Clarence and Isabel Neville Richard III and Anne Neville Henry Tudor and Elizabeth of York However these relationships fail in comparison to the impact that the marriage of Henry VI and Margaret of Anjou had on England during this time Henry VI was seen as a weak pious ruler Margaret was seen as too strong for a woman They have been viewed separately for a long time never as a couple That is until Amy Licence wrote her latest biography Henry VI and Margaret of Anjou A Marriage of Unequals. Book Henry VI and Margaret of anjoua I would like to thank Pen and Sword Books for sending me a copy of this lovely book I have always been fascinated by Henry VI and Margaret of Anjou so this book was a delight to read. History Henry VI and Margaret of anjoust In her introduction Licence explains how Henry and Margaret have been viewed in the past separately and as a couple Little attention has been given to Henry and Margaret as a pair in terms of their marriage their life together and their joint rule This is partly because less evidence survives about their intimate relationship leading it to be reduced to a few simple anecdotes about Margaret being already a woman at the time of her marriage and Henry s reputed prudery Contemporary and subsequent historians have exploited a far subtle relationship dynamic to undermine Henry and Margaret as individuals as a couple and as rulers by playing on fifteenth century gender expectations Almost six hundred years after Henry s birth the time is right for a reappraisal of their lives and marriage which has no need to adhere to strict cultural codes about gender but can use them as a starting point to deconstruct the identities of two atypical individuals Licence x Licence starts her biography by exploring the lives of Henry VI and Margaret of Anjou before they became husband and wife They had very different upbringings Henry was the son of Henry the strong warrior King and Catherine of Valois He was declared King of England and France at a very young age since his father died while he was a few months old Margaret was the daughter of Rene of Anjou who was a king without a kingdom Their union seems very unlikely but it worked rather well although there were some in England who weren t exactly thrilled for the royal couple It wasn t until the conflict known as the Wars of the Roses broke out that we see how strong the relationship between Henry and Margaret truly was Henry was weaker than his father Henry V and he did suffer from some sort of mental illness so Margaret had to step in to help take care of him and their son while defending the throne from the Yorkists They had to make tough choices but Henry and Margaret did them together Licence shows the dynamic of this relationship not only by using English sources but by using reports from foreign ambassadors Reading these sources allows the reader to understand that Henry and Margaret were complex individuals than what we see in history books Licence presents a fresh new look at this power couple Henry and Margaret s story is one of love and heartache full of both joy and struggles Henry might have been a weaker medieval king than his father and Margaret might have been a bit stronger than most medieval women but that is what makes them so unique This book packed a lot of wonderful information in it about not only their relationship but the Wars of the Roses and the cult of Henry VI which formed after his death It was an absolute pleasure to read I did not want to put this book down I highly recommend that you have Henry VI and Margaret of Anjou A Marriage of Unequals by Amy Licence in your personal library if you are interested in Henry VI Margaret of Anjou and the Wars of the Roses 9781526709752 More of a biography of Margaret than Henry but despite the fact he ruled for than forty years there is precious little in the record to write about him besides that he prayed on it so its understandable Margaret takes center stage. Henry VI and Margaret of anjouco License points out multiple times what we think we know about her was written down by people who were highly politically motivated to write nasty things about her and then afterwards the patriarchy was anxious to make a lot of put downs about a woman who dared step outside of expected gender roles. EPub Henry VI and Margaret of anjoust A fascinating story that shows just how much history is written by victors pointing out how much pro Yorkist history is still the majority and sheds new light on this time period from the Lancaster point of view 9781526709752 I ve been feeling for awhile that I wanted to read about Henry VI and the Wars of the Roses and Amy Licence s Henry VI and Margaret of Anjou A Marriage of Unequals seemed like a good place to start I d enjoyed Amy Licence s Red Roses Blanche of Gaunt to Margaret Beaufort and this was recently published which means it was going to be up to date with recent discoveries or theories for instance Bertram Woolfe s Henry VI apparently is so outdated it has a preface telling you how outdated it is and the attitudes towards both Margaret and Henry less likely to be tarnished by misogyny and ableism But Henry VI and Margaret of Anjou A Marriage of Unequals was a bit of disappointment Licence s intentions are good I feel she does work hard to uncover the personalities of Henry and Margaret beneath the commonly accepted images of them as the weak mad king and the she wolf Her Henry is in control of his life and reign and acts with agency her Margaret is sympathetically rendered shown not have to been grasping for power and control from the start but stepping up only when Henry couldn t and it is the fact that she failed that causes Margaret to be viewed negatively rather than as a strong or awesome woman. Henry VI and Margaret of Anjou ebooks online However it felt clear that like their marriage this biography is unequal and Licence s true interest was in rehabilitating and biographizing Margaret of Anjou with Henry s situation only occasionally referenced Of course this might be an issue of evidence I don t imagine for example that there s a lot one can say about Henry when he s a prisoner in the Tower of London under Edward IV s control while Margaret is working to recover the throne for him and their son But it does feel unbalanced and I don t feel as though Licence s interest and efforts in rehabilitating Margaret s image is similarly matched in her interest and efforts in revaluating Henry s While the preface claims to be interested in re examining both in terms of gender roles Licence doesn t really touch Henry with her gender role analysis but instead focuses on giving him agency. Henry VI and Margaret of Anjou ebookee Further the biography overall felt very brief It is only 181 pages long excluding notes which are just citations without commentary and there were great sections that felt brief The first chapter about Henry VI s pre marriage life felt very rushed and the reader does not gain a good understanding of the complexities personalities or issues that dominated his early reign I also felt that I didn t gain a very good understanding of the tensions and events that led to the outbreak of the Wars of the Roses which as someone who doesn t know a great deal about this time in history and wants to know is incredibly disappointing There were also times that I felt quite a lot of history was being glossed over the death of Margaret and Henry s son Edward is mentioned in passing initially and while Licence does return to discuss the various accounts of his death she doesn t really seem to come to a conclusion The death of Henry s uncle Humphrey Duke of Gloucester is dealt with in two paragraphs and again there is no conclusion nor is there any discussion of the fallout from his death which some argue is the moment where the Wars of the Roses really began as York was seen as his political heir. Henry VI and Margaret of anjouf bookpedia Now most of the fiction and non fiction books I have read do lean to the Yorkist side of the war so I realise I m coming in biased on the wrong side but I felt that in her efforts to revaluate and rehabilitate Margaret s image Licence was also very reluctant to allocate Margaret blame or even really acknowledge when she made bad decisions with bad consequences Weirdly there is no index published with this book so good luck if you want to search for anything in particular. Book Henry VI and Margaret of anjou essential I feel as though Henry VI and Margaret of Anjou A Marriage of Unequals had very good intentions behind it Intentions that made me excited Both Henry VI and Margaret of Anjou are heavily mythologised figures in history she as an evil harpy he as a saintly or mad pacifist Yet the brevity of the book the unequal treatment of both figures and evidence of an avoidance to actually deal with the realities of these individuals lives and actions let it down I picked this up wanting to like it and yet I put it down completely disappointed 9781526709752.