Fatal Colours
£9.99
George Goodwin
"This wonderful book is a fascinating insight into the nature of late medieval warfare, and the farcical/tragic nature of Henry VI’s reign". Dominic Dromgoole, Artistic director, Shakespeare's Globe
When Henry V died in 1422, England's great warrior king was succeeded by his baby son, Henry VI. In Fatal Colours, George Goodwin chronicles Henry VI's disasterous reign and the savage First War of the Roses, with it's appalling culmination at Townton on Palm Sunday 1461.
Variously described as the largest, longest and bloodiest battle on English soil, Townton was fought with murderous intensity in atrocious conditions. There was, for the defeated, little chance of escape and none for surrender.
Vibrantly capturing the atmosphere of fifteenth-century England, Fatal Colours includes a cast of strong and compelling characters: a warrior queen, a ruthless kingmaking earl, even a papal legate who excommunicates an entire army. Crucially, it provides a startling solution to the conundrum of the age: why Henry VI, forever childlike, was a king who could never rule.