The Last White Rose

Henry Tudor's defeat of Richard III at Bosworth Field is commonly thought of as the end to the conflict known as the Wars of the Roses—the rivalry between the houses of Lancaster and York for the English crown. However, while the Lancastrians won the day and put the first Tudor on the throne, the roots of the white rose of the House of York proved difficult to extinguish, with figures both legitimate and false troubling Henry VII and Henry VIII throughout their reigns. The Yorkist claimants and pretenders are often relegated to smaller parts in histories of the Tudor monarchy, so a volume that focuses particularly on them and their supporters is a welcome sight. Unfortunately, though Seward's treatment of the subject is detailed, his reliance on biased sources and his tendency to present opinions and theories as fact undermine the book's worth as a whole.