The Pastons: A Family in the Wars of the Roses (First Person Singular) - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1843831112 ISBN 13: 9781843831112

Publisher: Boydell Press, 2004

Synopsis

Within three generations (1426 to 1485), and through the dark anddangerous years of the Wars of the Roses, the Pastons establishedthemselves as a family of consequence, both in their native Norfolk andwithin court circles. Ambitious and highly mobile — womenfolk as wellas men — they kept in touch by correspondence, usually but notinvariably through the medium of a clerk. These letters, a raresurvival, break upon us across the centuries with the urgency, andsometimes the violence, of their preoccupations: defending property,fighting court cases, making the right alliances, and, on the domesticside, managing their estates, conducting their courtships, stockingtheir cupboards. Selected and presented here with Richard Barber'sinvaluable linking narrative, they bring the middle ages triumphantlyto life.

About this title

Review:

Richard Barber's attractive selection, originally published by the Folio Society, well deserves this more accessible reissue. The letters are presented in modernised form with spare but informative linking commentary, and the volume is ideal both for the `ordinary reader' and for medievalists for whom a friendly acquaintance with the Pastons is a sufficient substitute for linguistic or historical scholarship. The selection conveys well their recurrent concerns with land, money, civil violence, flirtation, marriage and the purchase of ginger and lace. MEDIUM AEVUM

About the Author:

Richard Barber has published widely on medieval history. The Knight and Chivalry won the 1971 Somerset Maugham Award. His other major interest is historical biography with books on Henry Plantagenet and the Black Prince. His most recent book is Edward III and the Triumph of England: The Battle of Cr cy and the Order of the Garter.

About this edition

• Publisher: Boydell Press
• Publication date: 2004
• ISBN 10: 1843831112
• ISBN 13: 9781843831112
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 208
• Editor: Barber Richard