The Brothers York: An English Tragedy

The gripping new history by the author of the acclaimed bestseller Winter King

It is 1461 and England is crippled by civil war. One freezing morning, a teenage boy wins a battle in the Welsh marches, and claims the crown. He is Edward IV, first king of the usurping house of York...

Thomas Penn's remarkable new telling of the wars of the roses takes us inside a conflict which fractured the nation for more than three decades. During this time, the house of York came to dominate England, wresting power from the house of Lancaster. At its heart were three charismatic brothers - Edward IV; George, Duke of Clarence; and Richard, Duke of Gloucester - who became the figureheads of a spectacular ruling dynasty and promised a renewal of royal authority.

But with Edward IV's ascendancy the wars turned inward, unleashing a catastrophic chain of rebellion, vendetta, fratricide, usurpation and regicide. The brothers who, together, looked invincible, were drawn into conflict with each other. The brutal end came at Bosworth Field in 1485, with the death of the youngest, then Richard III, at the hands of a new usurper, Henry Tudor.

The story of a warring family unable to sustain its influence and power, The Brothers York brings to life a dynasty that could have been as magnificent as the Tudors went on to become. Its tragedy was that, in the space of one generation, it destroyed itself.