Thank you to Pen and Sword Books for a copy of this to review.
I’ve already read ‘Following in the Footsteps of the Princes in the Tower’ from the same series, so I was looking forward to this one, expecting it to be in the same vein, but I was a little disappointed. I didn’t find it very engaging and perhaps it isn’t fair to compare it to another book in the same series by a different author.
I was expecting a breakdown of each place that Henry travelled through, and although it is a comprehensive exploration of the route Henry Tudor took from his birth to his accession to the throne, the places themselves seem to take a back seat, not what I’d expect from a book called ‘Following in the Footsteps’ but I know that’s my personal opinion and others might disagree.
There were also a few errors – for example, the Duke of Norfolk is in several places referred to as the Earl of Norfolk, and Rhys ap Thomas sometimes referred to as Rhys ap Tudor. Perkin Warbeck and the Earl of Warwick were said to have been executed in 1497, but it was actually 1499. I also had a problem with the bibliography. For the amount of information given in the book I expected quite a comprehensive bibliography, but it was surprisingly short, and a book doesn’t instil me with confidence when it lists Wikipedia and the Daily Mail as sources, to be honest.
It’s certainly an interesting book and did offer a lot of insight especially into the journey Henry VII took on landing in Wales in August 1485 to Bosworth Field where Richard III died. That section is particularly detailed, but the sources are questionable sometimes I think. For the story I think it is intriguing, but I wouldn’t trust the sources used – if you’re planning on referencing or believing anything in this book, go back to the original sources.
Chapters:
- A Homecoming
- The Wars of the Roses
- Birth, Adolescence and Exile
- Brittany and Home Again
- The Return
- The Long March
- Into England
- Drawing the Battle Lines
- Bosworth Field
- After Battle
- The Aftermath
Tudor Blogger 