War of the Roses: Stormbird, Iggulden - B+

                    This excellent historical novel is the first of four on one of England's early civil wars. The seeds were sown generations earlier when Edward III died in 1377 after half-a-century rule. His oldest predeceased him leaving the crown to ten-year old Richard II. The regent was John of Gaunt, the Duke of Lancaster and the king's uncle, but it was John's son who became Henry IV after deposing the unpopular Richard. 

                   Our story begins in 1443 with Henry VI on the throne. There was universal regret that he was a fraction of the man his father was. England's most famous battle king died prematurely and was succeeded by an infant who grew to be a man more interested in prayer than governing. Facing ongoing war over England's possessions in France, Henry desired an end to the fighting in France and agreed to a truce to assures twenty-year peace in exchange for England abandoning Anjou and Maine. The  fourteen years old Princess Margaret of Anjou became his queen. All of the English residents in Anjou and Maine felt abandoned and began a guerrilla war campaign against the French. France declared the peace broken and invaded in force. Many in England were unhappy with the king's abandonment of France, none more so than Richard, Duke of York. He was in charge of English forces in France and replaced by William de la Pole, Duke of Suffolk. Suffolk successfully defended Rouen, capital of English Normandy against the men of the French king. But when all but Calais fell, Suffolk became the target of parliamentary retribution. Tortured and about to be executed, Suffolk was saved by the king's intervention and banished for five years. In the end, parliament prevailed. A 'pirate' ship took Suffolk on the Channel and beheaded him. 

              Unrest in Kent, fueled by dictatorial local judges,  innumerable taxes, and the animosity of bitter men returning from France, led to a peasants' rebellion headed by Jack Cade. The peasants marched on London, breached the city walls, crossed the London Bridge, actually besieged the Tower, stole all they could carry, and wreaked a night of terror on the city. The queen assumed more and more responsibility for the state as Henry's physical and mental health deteriorated. She pardoned the rebellious peasants in order to bring peace to the country. At long last pregnant, she held Henry on the night he descended into utter senselessness, and five months later watched as the assembled lords of the realm asked Richard of York to be Protector and Defender of the Realm.