Thrones in Danger: 2

A wounded king. A determined queen. A kingdom moving from rivalry to civil war.The First Battle of St Albans had ended with Henry VI wounded, his leading supporters dead and Richard, Duke of York, temporarily dominant. But the struggle for England was far from settled.In Thrones in Danger, Gordon J. MacKenzie follows the six turbulent years in which attempts at reconciliation collapsed and political rivalry became a contest for the crown.Henry VI remained king, but his weakness left others to fight over the future of his dynasty. Margaret of Anjou emerged as the determined defender of her son's inheritance. Richard of York faced enemies seeking revenge for St Albans, while Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick, transformed Calais into a powerful Yorkist stronghold.Peace failed. Armies gathered. Blore Heath and Ludford Bridge were followed by exile, attainder and an extraordinary Yorkist return. Victory at Northampton placed Henry VI in enemy hands, and York finally revealed the claim that had long shadowed English politics.The Act of Accord attempted an impossible compromise, preserving Henry's crown while disinheriting his son. Margaret refused to accept it.Wakefield, Mortimer's Cross and the Second Battle of St Albans followed. By March 1461, England faced a situation once almost unimaginable: two rival kings and one crown.Thrones in Danger is Book Two of The Wars of the Roses, a ten-volume narrative history of the dynastic struggle that transformed medieval England and ultimately brought the Tudors to power.