The Last Plantagenets Quotes

“was tried, convicted, and executed five days later in the manner prescribed by law.”
― Thomas B. Costain, The Last Plantagenets

“Edward’s end came suddenly and it proved a disconcerting matter to the sharp-eyed Woodvilles. It had been expected that the heir to the throne would be left in his mother’s care. Through her they could control the kingdom even more completely than they had done while the sodden king lived. A household for the young Prince of Wales had been set up under the control of Lord Rivers with the title of governor. A council had been appointed to assist in the boy’s education and training.”
― Thomas B. Costain, The Last Plantagenets

“Morton, conniving servant of a sly master, became so unpopular that his methods have remained an unpleasant legend in English history. Being more expert in the use of his legal fork than in the wielding of a scholarly pen, it was less likely that the story of Richard’s reign would be believed if it came from him. This, however, is a matter of relatively small importance, for it is agreed that the information on which the History is based was supplied by Morton. The work in question is no more than a fragment, a matter of, roughly, 25,000 words. It is in no sense a history of the reign of Richard,”
― Thomas B. Costain, The Last Plantagenets

“Morton, conniving servant of a sly master, became so unpopular that his methods have remained an unpleasant legend in English history. Being more expert in the use of his legal fork than in the wielding of a scholarly pen, it was less likely that the story of Richard’s reign would be believed if it came from him. This, however, is a matter of relatively small importance, for it is agreed that the information on which the History is based was supplied by Morton.”
― Thomas B. Costain, The Last Plantagenets

“THERE are only two sources of any value for the story which charges Richard with the murder of the two princes in the Tower of London. The first in importance, The History of King Richard III, is generally ascribed to Sir Thomas More. The second is Anglica Historia by Polydore Vergil, an Italian author who was hired by Henry VII to write a history of England. The Vergil version follows that of More in most respects but departs from it in many important omissions. The histories which were published later during the Tudor period, with few exceptions, did not deviate from what More had set down,”
― Thomas B. Costain, The Last Plantagenets

“That Richard III was the most notorious whipping boy in history is a theory which is now being widely held.”
― Thomas B. Costain, The Last Plantagenets

“THE war between the Lancastrians and the Yorkists could possibly have been brought to a quick conclusion after the victory of the White Rose at St. Albans, as Henry IV had done after the capture of Richard. If Richard of York had overcome his scruples about removing his cousin and had declared his own claim to the throne, he would have found little organized resistance at this point.”
― Thomas B. Costain, The Last Plantagenets

“During Norman and Plantagenet days the English kings did not have large standing armies. The country was divided into wide tracts held by the barons, who were expected to join the king with all their dependents, armed and ready, in the event of war. There would have been small advantage in having standing armies because of the bad roads and the scarcity of bridges. The Scots could come down over the border and create havoc in the north, or the Welsh could issue out from their mountains and harry the western counties, and vanish into thin air, before the king with his trained troops could get to the scene of action. It was necessary, therefore, to maintain forces in the exposed areas which would always be ready to repel attack. This was done by a system of “farming out” the defense of the north and the west to certain great families. Whole counties were turned over to them, on their guarantee to maintain the safety of the borders.”
― Thomas B. Costain, The Last Plantagenets

“MUCH of the story of Richard’s twenty-two-year reign is based on insufficient evidence and it has generally been told without any effort to be impartial. When a king is deposed, the story of what happened is written with an eye to the favor of the new incumbent. The boy king has been treated harshly in the chronicles of the Lancastrian period and much of what has been published since follows that lead.”
― Thomas B. Costain, The Last Plantagenets

“an issue, based on idealistic reasoning, cannot hold men together for any great length of time. Few are capable of holding to a faith without any concern for personal satisfaction or gain. A certain proportion of every mass recruited to demand a change or to further a cause will seize the opportunity offered for looting and thievery.”
― Thomas B. Costain, The Last Plantagenets

“One question must arise in every mind in considering the state of things in England at this point: if Duke John had so many enemies, why did he possess such great power? Could not those who feared and hated him, which included most of the nobility, many of the bishops, and the citizens of London to a man, combine to thwart him in his ambitious schemes? The answer to these questions consisted largely of one word—Wealth.”
― Thomas B. Costain, The Last Plantagenets

“We cannot judge the leading figures of centuries ago by our own modern standards.”
― Thomas B. Costain, The Last Plantagenets

“All tyrants, no matter how powerful they conceive themselves to be, live in fear.”
― Thomas B. Costain, The Last Plantagenets

“he again expressed his belief that the equality of man was what God had planned and that all feudal laws must some day be abolished.”
― Thomas B. Costain, The Last Plantagenets

“Historians have never made the mistake of underestimating Henry VII, not even those who like him little.”
― Thomas B. Costain, The Last Plantagenets

“The Wars of the Roses could be called the Wars of No Quarter. There is always a special ferocity in civil conflict, but the wearers of the Red and the Snow Roses were particularly revengeful. Margaret of Anjou is given credit for introducing much of the acrimony, but Edward IV, that handsome gladiatorial figure, carried it on by wholesome decapitations after the battles he won. Richard was as ambitious as any member of his family and did not scruple to use the sharp medicine of the headman’s axe against him. But a similar cause, which won admiration for Edward because he succeeded with it, was condemned in the cause of the younger and less spectacular brother because he failed. Enmity was built up against him.”
― Thomas B. Costain, The Last Plantagenets

“Murders can be committed successfully sometimes, but the disposal of the body is always a difficult matter.”
― Thomas B. Costain, The Last Plantagenets

“The years from 1400 to 1485, which intervened between the deaths of Richard II and Richard III, were filled with the color and cruelties of civil war, with stories of deep villainy and vile conspiracy and with some slight imprints of the genius of an emerging imagination.”
― Thomas B. Costain, The Last Plantagenets