Edward IV’s Fatal Legacy (eBook)

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Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

I absolutely loved this book. As a Tudor history lover, I was aware of the Courtenays as an important family during the period, but I was seriously lacking in details about the family dynamics. This book filled in all those gaps and then some. The amount of archival research and 16th-century handwriting Pierce had to read for this book is breathtaking, and her writing style made it easily digestible.

Her writing style immediately grips you and introduces you to the last of the Plantagenets by discussing the life of Catherine of York. Catherine was the sixth daughter of Edward IV and Elizabeth Woodville and, as a result, carried royal blood in her veins. However, a mere two generations later, her family line would die out. Pierce outlines the household accounts, personal letters, and historical contexts in which Catherine of York and her family lived. Across three generations, we see the rise and fall of the Tudor dynasty through the context of their extended family.

My favorite parts of this book were the way in which Pierce was able to draw out the personalities of Catherine of York and her daughter-in-law Gertrude Blount through their household accounts and letters. Pierce was really able to make these women's personalities and lives take shape on the page. I also enjoyed examining how these women's lives overlapped in many ways and how they each faced challenges in different ways.

I also found the prominent role that the Courtney family had to play in the life and reign of Mary I to be particularly interesting. Often, Mary I's relationship with her other Plantagenet relatives, the Pole family, is discussed in more detail, but Pierce can provide evidence of Mary's larger social network.

Ultimately, this is the story of heartbreak and the brutality of being a noble with royal blood in your veins during the reign of the Tudors. I loved every minute of reading this book, and I personally cannot wait for what Pierce produces next.

I highly recommend this book! If you want to expand your understanding of the Tudor period, enter the world of the Plantagenets, or just love great works of historical biography that feature women prominently, this is a book you should definitely read.

NetGalley, Shana Needham

Katharine, Countess of Devon, daughter of Edward IV, experienced a life of shifting fortunes. Once destined to be Queen of Spain, she was later declared illegitimate before marrying into the Courtenay family. This is the story of the Courtenays, whose proximity to the English throne made them vulnerable to courtly intrigue, scandalous accusations, and charges of treason. This interesting and well-researched book provides insight into a branch of the royal lineage that's rarely discussed.

NetGalley, Andrea Romance

Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

I found this book to be a fascinating and enjoyable read. The exploration of the people surrounding Edward IV was especially engaging and really highlighted the depth of research behind the story.

NetGalley, Catherine O’Connor

This was such an interesting book and I really enjoyed reading it! The deep dive into those around Edward IV was very entertaining, it really allowed the reader to understand the research that went into this book.

NetGalley, Megan Craddock

I enjoyed this a lot, a family I was vaguely aware of in relation to their more illustrious cousins, but I'd never really read much about them beyond Edward being link to Mary and Elizabeth with rumours of marriage.

It was really interesting to follow Princess Katharine, to chart her life, so often the sisters of Elizabeth of York are overlooked. Her children were also highlighted - I've read so many books about the Tudor period, and this is possibly the first time I even knew she had a daughter!

The letters gift us a rare and much appreciated window into the relationships between these people.

I also really liked the re-examination of Edward Courtenay. I'll hold my hand up and say that before reading this book I too had dismissed him as something of a lightweight, too broken by captivity to have any redeeming qualities, but this book casts in him a far more sympathetic and understanding light. While assuming that he had died under the order of someone, it was really interesting to see all the evidence and really chart his downfall...

All in all, this was a great read and worth the time if you are interested in the period at all.

NetGalley, Sarah Aspden

As someone who adores history, especially the drama and intrigue of the 15th- and 16th-century courts, I was completely absorbed by this story. The author brings these long-forgotten figures to life without ever overwhelming the reader with dry detail.

It’s a perfect tale for anyone who loves Tudor history but wants to move beyond the usual six wives and famous names.

NetGalley, Lizzy Cazares

Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

A fascinating deep dive into three generations of the aristocratic Courtney family, starting with Katherine of York, younger sister of Elizabeth of York.

While we have no surviving portrait of Katherine, Pierce builds up a detailed picture using household accounts, receipts, invoices, contents of wardrobes and laundry tubs, Christmas gifts, doctor's visits, chapel decorations, wills, marriage contracts, travel itineraries, and more, showing the busy social life and well run administration of Princess Katherine, Countess of Devon.

We also see how her life was a constant roller coaster of highs and lows - pampered baby princess in the court of her father Edward IV, then her uncle Richard III declares her and her siblings bastards and she is under house arrest with her mother, then she is a darling sister-in-law at the court of the new king Henry VII, until the husband arranged for her, the Earl of Devon, comes under suspicion of treason and she is sweating bullets while he is in the Tower, but luckily her nephew Henry VIII restores her family to prominence, leading to her longest period of stability, and then, in what in hindsight will be PERFECT timing, she dies after a short illness, all her affairs in order, her large, carefully tended inheritance handed off to her son with no issues, a splendid funeral with many speeches and all the trimmings - JUST as the king's Great Matter is about to erupt.

Then we follow her son, and, more importantly, her AWESOME daughter-in-law Gertrude as they deal with having to choose sides in the Divorce and suffer for choosing Catherine of Aragon.

After a period of mostly lows, Gertrude sees her son locked in the Tower for the "crime" of being Edward IV's great-grandson (the ONLY other still left being the boy king Edward VI) and only just manages to squeak through Henry VIII's reign, and the short lived Edward VI. Then, Mary I becomes queen, and she lets hm out because of how his family supported her mother, and she knows he was locked up just for being a Plantagenet.

Then, just when things should be golden for him, free at last, supported by the reigning monarch, young and handsome and healthy with a title and money - he gets sucked into deadly politics as several groups grab onto him as a possible pawn in their game of thrones. Again, be barely survives, but he does, which is impressive. Pierce makes a good point that not getting himself executed was impressive in this time period, when being of both royal blood and being named at the center of traitors plots. The young earl was not the idiot most other historians make him out to be.

He wisely takes himself off on a tour of Europe, only to die under slightly mysterious circumstances in Italy. Could have been poison, or could have been just lack of antibiotics.

Very well researched and well presented, this was a fascinating look at what happened to one of the last Plantagenet branches in the volatile Tudor period.

NetGalley, Kara Race-Moore

Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

A good book..love reading up on the history of the Tudors and Plantagenets. Deep dives into the history of Edward IV and how he lived his life.

NetGalley, Amber Ward

I really enjoyed this book. British history lovers take note: don't miss this.

NetGalley, Janine Skavnak