The horrors of this war epitomize the breakdown of basic values—respect for order, civility, and human decency—which paves the way for the tyrant’s rise. The seeds of the breakdown had already been glimpsed in the argument between York and Somerset, where a disagreement over an obscure point of law had quickly escalated into a barrage of insults. The anger was intensified by the rise of party politics and then, through York’s subterfuge, had led to the murder of Duke Humphrey and Jack Cade’s rebellion. But civil war lifts the veil of subterfuge: the principal political figures no longer hide
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