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Blood and Roses: One Family's Struggle and Triumph During the Tumultuous Wars of the Roses
The Wars of the Roses tore England asunder. Over the course of thirty years, four kings lost their thrones, countless men lost their lives on the battlefield or their heads on the block, and others found themselves suddenly flush with gold. Yet until now, little has been written about the ordinary people who lived through this extraordinary time. Blood and Roses is a gripping, intimate story of one determined family conducting everyday business against the backdrop of a disintegrating society and savage civil war. Drawing on a rare trove of letters discovered in a tumbledown stately home, historian Helen Castor reconstructs the turbulent affairs of the Pastons through three generations of births, marriages, and deaths as they single-mindedly worked their way up from farmers to landed gentry. It is a remarkable chronicle of devotion, ambition, and survival that brings a remote and hazy era to vibrant new life.
448 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2004
56 people are currently reading
2328 people want to read
About the author
Helen Castor
7 books483 followersHelen Castor is a historian of medieval England and a Fellow of Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge. She directed studies in History at Sidney for eight years before deciding to concentrate on writing history for a wider readership.
Her book Blood & Roses (Faber, 2004, published in revised form in the US by HarperCollins, 2006) is a biography of the fifteenth-century Paston family, whose letters are the earliest great collection of private correspondence surviving in the English language. Blood & Roses was longlisted for the Samuel Johnson Prize for Non-Fiction in 2005, and was awarded the Beatrice White Prize (for outstandingly scholarly work in the field of English Literature before 1590) by the English Association in 2006.
Her next book, She-Wolves: The Women Who Ruled England Before Elizabeth, will be published in the UK by Faber and in the US by HarperCollins.
She lives in London with her husband and son.
Her book Blood & Roses (Faber, 2004, published in revised form in the US by HarperCollins, 2006) is a biography of the fifteenth-century Paston family, whose letters are the earliest great collection of private correspondence surviving in the English language. Blood & Roses was longlisted for the Samuel Johnson Prize for Non-Fiction in 2005, and was awarded the Beatrice White Prize (for outstandingly scholarly work in the field of English Literature before 1590) by the English Association in 2006.
Her next book, She-Wolves: The Women Who Ruled England Before Elizabeth, will be published in the UK by Faber and in the US by HarperCollins.
She lives in London with her husband and son.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 96 reviews
September 9, 2015
The Pastons are sort of like neighbors you've never met, but see occasionally driving down the street or working in their yards, neighbors you are on nodding acquaintance with but have never actually talked to. And when you finally get to talk to them, you find them to be delightful people. If you read anything about the Wars of the Roses or the early Tudors, you are bound to run into the Pastons. They usually don't get a whole book to themselves, particularly fiction, as their lives - or at least their letters - are remarkably normal, full of the kind of small family drama and love, and litigiousness, that make up the everyday lives of the majority of people. I imagine they've lurked at the edges of fiction, used for research purposes to give characters authenticity. Their letters are occasionally quoted by books of nonfiction about the era; they lives were representative of a class of people, and they were also swept up into the turbulence of the time on several occasions.
I found this alternating between incredibly interesting and ploddingly dull. Other people's legal battles aren't really all that intriguing, when you get down into the details.
Relating the story of the Paston family aloud to someone who asks "what are you reading right now" was actually more fun than reading the book.
I found this alternating between incredibly interesting and ploddingly dull. Other people's legal battles aren't really all that intriguing, when you get down into the details.
Relating the story of the Paston family aloud to someone who asks "what are you reading right now" was actually more fun than reading the book.
December 12, 2015
The Paston letters are a trove of letters involving at least one member of the Paston family, and they span one century, three generations, and so many kings and regents that I lost count (Henry V to Henry VII). They're also six hundred years old.
The Pastons were bonded farmers. Thanks to the social and economic upheaval caused by the plagues, they were able to send their son, William, to be trained as a lawyer. (Actually, his uncle paid for it.) William became a judge, and he started to buy land. From there, the story is about the struggle for property when untitled, former almost-slaves had no property rights. The lives of William's son, John, and William's grandsons, John II and John III, were enmeshed in fights over properties and wills.
For better or worse, I learned a lot about medieval property law. What was more interesting than the court arguments: the women had more agency than their husbands and sons. Margaret Paston (the wife of John) retained control of her lands, and her husband could not give Margaret's lands to her sons in his will. Women bequeathed their property (estates and items) as they themselves saw fit.
Through the morass of legal battles and by liberally and directly quoting from the letters, Castor's goal is to shake us from the false mythology about the medieval age. It's not the "Dark Ages":
Here, there are flashes of romance: the landed daughter falling in love with her brother's servant. There is pain: a daughter abused by her mother because she has not married at the ripe age of twenty-four. There is even macabre humor: a wife instructing her husband to send crossbows (not longbows) because they are the better defense for their home -- and don't forget the almonds and sugar.
But -- for all that the book purports to be about the Pastons, it's really about the Wars of the Roses, the series of wars for the throne after the death of Henry V and the reign of "Henry VI." I understand that these wars are vital to the Paston history: the person in power determined the way the courts ruled in deciding the fate of the Paston/Fastolf lands. I don't know much about the Wars of the Roses, and I think I know a bit more about them now. It's just that I didn't expect a blow-by-blow recount of the Yorkist struggle for power, when the subtitle and synopsis only mention the Pastons.
The Pastons were bonded farmers. Thanks to the social and economic upheaval caused by the plagues, they were able to send their son, William, to be trained as a lawyer. (Actually, his uncle paid for it.) William became a judge, and he started to buy land. From there, the story is about the struggle for property when untitled, former almost-slaves had no property rights. The lives of William's son, John, and William's grandsons, John II and John III, were enmeshed in fights over properties and wills.
For better or worse, I learned a lot about medieval property law. What was more interesting than the court arguments: the women had more agency than their husbands and sons. Margaret Paston (the wife of John) retained control of her lands, and her husband could not give Margaret's lands to her sons in his will. Women bequeathed their property (estates and items) as they themselves saw fit.
Through the morass of legal battles and by liberally and directly quoting from the letters, Castor's goal is to shake us from the false mythology about the medieval age. It's not the "Dark Ages":
Without question, the people of the Middle Ages were acutely aware of death and its consequences. Thanks to the plague's appalling devastations, they experience suffering and loss on an unprecedented scale. But to depict them shrouded in a repressive culture of pessimism, their emotional engagement with the world stunted by a ghoulish fascination with the macabre, is to overlook their vitality, their diversity, their sophistication, their ambition -- fundamentally, to underestimate their humanity.The Paston letters restore the humanity of medieval people that six hundred years of assumptions have denied them.
Here, there are flashes of romance: the landed daughter falling in love with her brother's servant. There is pain: a daughter abused by her mother because she has not married at the ripe age of twenty-four. There is even macabre humor: a wife instructing her husband to send crossbows (not longbows) because they are the better defense for their home -- and don't forget the almonds and sugar.
But -- for all that the book purports to be about the Pastons, it's really about the Wars of the Roses, the series of wars for the throne after the death of Henry V and the reign of "Henry VI." I understand that these wars are vital to the Paston history: the person in power determined the way the courts ruled in deciding the fate of the Paston/Fastolf lands. I don't know much about the Wars of the Roses, and I think I know a bit more about them now. It's just that I didn't expect a blow-by-blow recount of the Yorkist struggle for power, when the subtitle and synopsis only mention the Pastons.
July 26, 2013
This is a highly unusual book. I believe this is the sort of material that's usually buried in PhD theses and never reaches a general audience.
Castor's exhaustive research shows as she reconstructs the history of the Paston family and its attempts to climb the social ladder of the landed gentry. In 15th century England, there is no title insurance. You can lose your land to claims of others who may be the progeny of previous owners, or may be just better connected. You can also lose it in a siege and hope that your connections are good enough to have a hearing in a court where you hope that you can to get better connected people than the insurgents on your side. You can also lose this property, and be imprisoned as well, if an ancestor of yours was "unfree" and therefore not able to own the property you claim.
The John Paston Family seems ill equipped to play this game. While the book does not deal with domestic problems, there are some unmistakable facts. William's other sons, who have better and firmer inheritances are in deep background (until one comes around to lay claim) leaving John, the semi-disinherited older son, to fend for himself. He's in this situation because his mother renounced his father's written will in favor of an alleged death bed testimony. This testimony works to the favor of the younger sons which essentially sets John up for failure. This is a mother who beats a daughter, whom she keeps in spinsterhood (withheld dowry), such that her head cracks.
John's wife Margaret raises children and runs the contested manor, which becomes a war zone (she actually fights skirmishs and battles) while her husband networks in London. There is little detail what he does with his time, and he must have a lot of it on his hands. No wonder Margaret becomes cranky in the end. Unfortunately she takes it out on her two sons, both of whom, also set up for failure by parental decisions, risk their lives for this family enterprise.
The tale is interesting for what it reveals of life at this time, but it is overly long in detail. Descriptions of battles, tangential players and some quotes from letters (some so convoluted they produce more confusion than enhancement) could well be eliminated in favor of a smoother analytical treatment. It isn't until p. 200+ that the author reveals what you seem to think, (but wonder if you've missed) that these people might be creating their own problems.
Also hard to understand is the true fiscal plight of the family. They are always in financial straights, but are ordering clothing (lots of detail on items the modern reader cannot identify), shopping, entertaining and hiring soldiers and servants. They seem to be not only living beyond their means, but reaching well beyond them as well.
I like that the author describes the provenance of the letters at the end, and not the beginning. This is the time the reader can really appreciate their value.
Castor's exhaustive research shows as she reconstructs the history of the Paston family and its attempts to climb the social ladder of the landed gentry. In 15th century England, there is no title insurance. You can lose your land to claims of others who may be the progeny of previous owners, or may be just better connected. You can also lose it in a siege and hope that your connections are good enough to have a hearing in a court where you hope that you can to get better connected people than the insurgents on your side. You can also lose this property, and be imprisoned as well, if an ancestor of yours was "unfree" and therefore not able to own the property you claim.
The John Paston Family seems ill equipped to play this game. While the book does not deal with domestic problems, there are some unmistakable facts. William's other sons, who have better and firmer inheritances are in deep background (until one comes around to lay claim) leaving John, the semi-disinherited older son, to fend for himself. He's in this situation because his mother renounced his father's written will in favor of an alleged death bed testimony. This testimony works to the favor of the younger sons which essentially sets John up for failure. This is a mother who beats a daughter, whom she keeps in spinsterhood (withheld dowry), such that her head cracks.
John's wife Margaret raises children and runs the contested manor, which becomes a war zone (she actually fights skirmishs and battles) while her husband networks in London. There is little detail what he does with his time, and he must have a lot of it on his hands. No wonder Margaret becomes cranky in the end. Unfortunately she takes it out on her two sons, both of whom, also set up for failure by parental decisions, risk their lives for this family enterprise.
The tale is interesting for what it reveals of life at this time, but it is overly long in detail. Descriptions of battles, tangential players and some quotes from letters (some so convoluted they produce more confusion than enhancement) could well be eliminated in favor of a smoother analytical treatment. It isn't until p. 200+ that the author reveals what you seem to think, (but wonder if you've missed) that these people might be creating their own problems.
Also hard to understand is the true fiscal plight of the family. They are always in financial straights, but are ordering clothing (lots of detail on items the modern reader cannot identify), shopping, entertaining and hiring soldiers and servants. They seem to be not only living beyond their means, but reaching well beyond them as well.
I like that the author describes the provenance of the letters at the end, and not the beginning. This is the time the reader can really appreciate their value.
May 31, 2013
After reading She Wolves and seeing the BBC production on TV, I was addicted to the authors gift for a storytelling voice. Blood & Roses is a beautifully in-depth look at the real lives of the Pastons over several generations. The Paston family letters could be in no better hands than Castor's to compile this work of history, life and times of the English countrymen of the Wars of the Roses time period. This is far better than some glammed-up Showtime Tudors series. Better not for the saucy and porned up gloss of our current sociological climate, but for the determination, struggle and fortitude that the Pastons maintained to persevere. As a reader I am not as facinated with the law aspect of the Paston's history, but the thread it maintained through the book wove a wonderful tapestry of the way English law was practiced and affected the politics of the time. I was delightfully pleased in this novel and it left me wishing Helen Castor had taught every English History course I had ever taken. Anglophiles and law students alike will find light enjoyment and great depth in this polished work.
January 26, 2025
I started the book by hoping a lot and ended it up by forcing myself to finish it. To be honest, it's a bit boring, and no, this does not reflect at all on Helen's qualifications as a writer, since she is a fine one. However, most of the extracts could have been easily skipped by, and by that I mean omitted from this book, which I did, and focus just on the story itself rather than the letters. To summarize, unless the subject is of your true interest, you would get bored by how arid the narration becomes as the book progresses, in fact, the only way I could get myself to the end was, by actually skipping most of the extracts, especially on the second half of the book. It pains me to acknowledge it, but this book would have remained otherwise on a shelf, reminding me of my failure to finish it.
December 17, 2019
The Paston family has acquired at least some attention as a notable and important part of English medieval history [1] and this book takes a detailed look at their history as it is recorded in their letters. Admittedly, the survival of the Paston family archives is itself a dramatic tale that probably deserves a book of its own, but while the history of the Pastons as a notable family goes on at least to the period after the English Civil War when they had risen to the titled aristocracy before daughtering out, this book focuses its attention on a very detailed look at what was going on in the family based on the letters and other documentation and it is a look at the lives of upwardly mobile English during the period after the Black Death that is deeply interesting, not least for what it says about English attitudes of class and the way that villein status was fatal to one's social ambitions and that those who rose above the status of their parents were subject to a great degree of trouble as a result of seeking to change their place in society.
This book of almost 400 pages discusses the lives and times of the Paston family of Norfolk during the course of the period from the Black Death to the end of the Wars of the Roses during the time when their archive of letters survives. The book begins with a list of illustrations, family trees, a discussion of the rulers of England during this time, a map of their East Anglia, as well as an author's note and some acknowledgements. After that the book begins with the origins of the Pastons in a prologue, the rise of William I Paston in the law, which earned the family a fair amount of money and their first estates and a rise in position that came with struggles and the search for friends as well as the resistance against enemies. A great deal of the middle part of the book drags because John I Paston is such a self-righteous prig that he manages to screw up his family's acquisitions by getting himself jailed on multiple occasions and alienating a lot of potential allies by being unwilling to see things from any perspective of his own. Finally, the book ends nicely by looking at how John II and John III Paston worked together to allow the family to rise and succeed in the midst of the Wars of the Roses, at which point the book ends with a discussion of the fate of the family later on as well as of the letters themselves.
In reading this book, and likely in reading the Paston letters as a whole, one gets a sense of the sort of tensions that families were under at the time and are still under to this day even if most families do not have estates to divide up among heirs or engage in pitched battle with the retinue of Dukes as was the case for the Pastons. There are and always have been tough decisions made as to how family resources should be allocated, and how acquisitive one should be in a fiercely competitive society where estates gave money and status to those who held them but where it was not always easy to secure title and enforce rents on one's tenants in the face of competition among other would-be elites. That is certainly true nowadays and was even more true in the periods the book discusses where people had to choose which royal pretenders to back with potentially fatal consequences in terms of death in battle or being dispossessed after picking the wrong contender, or even dying in prison as John Paston did. These letters have a lot to say about the stress that families were under, but were certainly a treasure trove of insights for historians who would be a lot worse off about life in the early modern period if not for their existence and preservation.
[1] See, for example:
https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2014...
https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2019...
This book of almost 400 pages discusses the lives and times of the Paston family of Norfolk during the course of the period from the Black Death to the end of the Wars of the Roses during the time when their archive of letters survives. The book begins with a list of illustrations, family trees, a discussion of the rulers of England during this time, a map of their East Anglia, as well as an author's note and some acknowledgements. After that the book begins with the origins of the Pastons in a prologue, the rise of William I Paston in the law, which earned the family a fair amount of money and their first estates and a rise in position that came with struggles and the search for friends as well as the resistance against enemies. A great deal of the middle part of the book drags because John I Paston is such a self-righteous prig that he manages to screw up his family's acquisitions by getting himself jailed on multiple occasions and alienating a lot of potential allies by being unwilling to see things from any perspective of his own. Finally, the book ends nicely by looking at how John II and John III Paston worked together to allow the family to rise and succeed in the midst of the Wars of the Roses, at which point the book ends with a discussion of the fate of the family later on as well as of the letters themselves.
In reading this book, and likely in reading the Paston letters as a whole, one gets a sense of the sort of tensions that families were under at the time and are still under to this day even if most families do not have estates to divide up among heirs or engage in pitched battle with the retinue of Dukes as was the case for the Pastons. There are and always have been tough decisions made as to how family resources should be allocated, and how acquisitive one should be in a fiercely competitive society where estates gave money and status to those who held them but where it was not always easy to secure title and enforce rents on one's tenants in the face of competition among other would-be elites. That is certainly true nowadays and was even more true in the periods the book discusses where people had to choose which royal pretenders to back with potentially fatal consequences in terms of death in battle or being dispossessed after picking the wrong contender, or even dying in prison as John Paston did. These letters have a lot to say about the stress that families were under, but were certainly a treasure trove of insights for historians who would be a lot worse off about life in the early modern period if not for their existence and preservation.
[1] See, for example:
https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2014...
https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2019...
May 21, 2014
Fabulous. Really. An amazing journey via letters through the rags to riches (rags later again) story of a real, Medieval English family tossed about by the turmoil of the wars of the Roses. A seemingly ordinary family parlaying the new opportunities that arose from the tragic Black Death scaled unimaginable heights amid the backdrop of civil war in a world slowly emerging from feudalism.
For any who have trouble tracking the many shifting players and alliances that populated these civil wars Castor does an amazing job of simplifying and explaining the whos and whys of them. For any who doubted the dangers of medieval life they are starkly revealed. Death by plague, high rates of infant and child mortality, ceaseless wars and battles, "laws" capriciously made and upheld, death in childbed, ignoble nobles practicing noblesse oblige and the recalcitrant demise of feudalism made daily life a treacherous and uncertain undertaking.
"So violent and motley was life that it bore the mixed smell of blood and of roses," Johan Huizinga quotes in Blood and Roses.
For any who have trouble tracking the many shifting players and alliances that populated these civil wars Castor does an amazing job of simplifying and explaining the whos and whys of them. For any who doubted the dangers of medieval life they are starkly revealed. Death by plague, high rates of infant and child mortality, ceaseless wars and battles, "laws" capriciously made and upheld, death in childbed, ignoble nobles practicing noblesse oblige and the recalcitrant demise of feudalism made daily life a treacherous and uncertain undertaking.
"So violent and motley was life that it bore the mixed smell of blood and of roses," Johan Huizinga quotes in Blood and Roses.
May 8, 2020
The writing is excellent and the fact the book is about a private family and their everyday lives against the backdrop of the War of the Roses intriguing. However, a lot of the book was about the Pastons legal battles over estates and wills. I found it intriguing that ownership of title or occupancy didn't mean anything as anyone with aristocratic blood or 'lineage' could dispute it, especially given the Pastors had risen from humble beginnings as a result of class mobility from the black plague and legal challenges and decisions changed with whoever was in power. BUT the legal details became so tedious I started skipping sections, particularly in the 2nd half of the book. I wanted more social history and analysis.
August 4, 2024
Good, well-researched but trying to understand complex land disputes and law language was very difficult and not my thing. (And even more difficult bc it was the 15th century). But I liked the book more as it went on and stopped being about lawyer stuff.
I really liked how through their letters the Pastons come across as real people. And! How this is such a cool source to examine the Middle Ages, and the Wars of the Roses!
I really liked how through their letters the Pastons come across as real people. And! How this is such a cool source to examine the Middle Ages, and the Wars of the Roses!
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April 23, 2010 The unique survival of hundreds of letters written by the 15th-century Paston family makes possible this brilliant synthesis of the family’s history with a narrative of the turbulent Wars of the Roses.
The Pastons’ determination to rise in the world at whatever cost plunged them into the thick of a brutal civil war in which it was imperative to find a powerful nobleman as patron and protector — which in turn meant that his enemies became their own, and that his backing the losing side in the dynastic conflict or simply incurring the king’s displeasure could mean their downfall as well. It’s exactly as if your career (or mine, or the average man’s) were directly dependent, at only 1 or 2 removes, on the result of the latest Congressional elections or the fallout from a Presidential sex scandal.
I was also struck by how well the author depicted the colorful personalities of this human drama. Here are Margaret Paston, the family matriarch, strong-willed and sometimes difficult but as courageous and capable as any man; her two likeable sons (both confusingly named John), forced at a very early age to assume sole responsibility for the family fortunes; King Edward IV, the real hero of the Wars of the Roses — all brought vividly to life. If anyone enjoyed Juliet Barker’s recent Agincourt and wondered what happened next, here is the answer, splendidly retold.
-Alan
The Pastons’ determination to rise in the world at whatever cost plunged them into the thick of a brutal civil war in which it was imperative to find a powerful nobleman as patron and protector — which in turn meant that his enemies became their own, and that his backing the losing side in the dynastic conflict or simply incurring the king’s displeasure could mean their downfall as well. It’s exactly as if your career (or mine, or the average man’s) were directly dependent, at only 1 or 2 removes, on the result of the latest Congressional elections or the fallout from a Presidential sex scandal.
I was also struck by how well the author depicted the colorful personalities of this human drama. Here are Margaret Paston, the family matriarch, strong-willed and sometimes difficult but as courageous and capable as any man; her two likeable sons (both confusingly named John), forced at a very early age to assume sole responsibility for the family fortunes; King Edward IV, the real hero of the Wars of the Roses — all brought vividly to life. If anyone enjoyed Juliet Barker’s recent Agincourt and wondered what happened next, here is the answer, splendidly retold.
-Alan
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February 5, 2025Hace no mucho tiempo, una de mis protégées me comentaba que estaba contemplando dedicarse a la rama familiar del derecho porque, con toda la cuestión de las herencias y sucesiones, pues resulta que, al parecer, ahí está el pan. Al segundo día de haber comenzado a leer este libro entendí perfectamente a lo que se refería. Y se lo comenté, efectivamente.
Esta jugosa biografía familiar fue escrita por la medievalista británica Helen Ruth Castor (Cambridge, 1968), quien previamente le entregó al mundo, entre otras obras, la que se supone es uno de los estudios biográficos mejor elaborados en torno a la Santa Patrona de Francia, Jehanne Darc —y que pretendía yo empezar a leer estos días, aunque tal vez tenga que esperar un poco. La obra se basa en una extensa bibliografía cuya base está conformada por un acervo epistolar de más de mil documentos escritos por tres generaciones de la familia Paston a lo largo de alrededor setenta años.
Voy a comenzar bien mi desglose con un topónimo: Caister. Y bien podría ser el título de toda la obra pues, en cierta medida, el castillo —ahora una triste sombra en ruinas— juega el papel de MacGuffin durante gran parte del dramma grosso de la familia Paston. Y tiene que ver con mi comentario de apertura: la suerte de los protagonistas tomó el derrotero que siguió precisamente por la decisión de insertarse en el mundo de la gentry vía la educación legal y las oportunidades laborales que de ella derivaron.
De entrada, me resultó muy interesante conocer el proceso de formación de un abogado inglés en el siglo XV, especialmente de uno nacido en el seno de la ruralidad y la relativa pobreza. De hecho, Paston es también un topónimo —en el condado de Norfolk, costa del levante de Inglaterra— y, según entiendo, seguía algo así como una estrategia por parte de algunas familias que buscaban trascender su sustrato de origen para forjarse una identidad nueva asociada al terruño, en una época en la que la cuestión de los noms de famille no estaba tan firmemente conformada como en nuestros días. Y es que resulta, y la misma Castor nos lo dice, que con sus asegunes y todo, la idea de la movilidad social y la noción —ahora muy američki— del self-made man no son precisamente productos de la sociedad industrializada. Sin embargo, precisamente el hecho de que la familia Paston tenía su génesis en uno de los bajos estratos de la sociedad inglesa, constituyó un elemento de recurrencia décadas después que vendría amenazar todos sus logros materiales, especialmente en términos de propiedades, así como el estatus que habían logrado construir.
Ya que no pretendo hacer la síntesis de todo el volumen, porque no sabría bien ni por dónde comenzar a hacerlo, dedicaré unas líneas a un par de puntos únicamente. En primer lugar, no puedo evitar sentir el coraje ajeno con tal desfile casi interminable de intriga, cosa política, una expectativa de justicia basada en el peso político de los contactos de alto rango, y la inevitable desilusión por parte de los más moralistas entre nuestros actores al darse cuenta de que sus principios y sus percepciones eran menos importantes que los contactos de peso político. Me había propuesto reescribir este párrafo de mis notas para el momento de darle forma a la reseña, pero voy a dejarlo así.
En segundo lugar, el capítulo seis que habla de la historia de vida Sir John Fastolf y su relación con John Paston I es probablemente mi favorito. Disfruté en particular la manera en la que se exponen las virtudes y las ansiedades del personaje; esos claroscuros que nos recuerdan que estas personas fueron seres humanos reales, no muy distintos de nosotros, me fascina. Y eso por no mencionar que la ineptitud política de un par de nuestros personajes principales y las consecuencias negativas derivadas de su incapacidad —un tanto “consciente”, ya que no faltó quien les advirtiera— para adecuarse al entorno social en el que vivían me hizo sentir que no estoy solo en este mundo. Sobra decir que estoy comenzando a reconsiderar algunas de mis propias actitudes, por supuesto.
Ahora, si bien la lectura comenzó siendo absolutamente interesante para mí, todo el proceso descrito en el capítulo cuatro, los pormenores sobre los juicios y las fechas, y todo el asunto tras la caída y ejecución del Duke de Suffolk —acusado de traición por mal aconsejar al incompetente rey Enrique VI y hacerlo perder las conquistas en Francia—, terminó siendo un poco tedioso, especialmente con tantos personajes nuevos y los testimonios intercalados que requirieron una relectura de cuando en cuando. Más adelante, sin embargo, el embrollo político que constituyó la carnita y la última fase de la Guerra de las Rosas —hacia el final del libro— es un chismerío sabroso y harto placentero. Eso sí, llegar al 1479 anno Domini, y que de la nada le dieran el tratamiento TWD o GOT a algunos personajes fue cosa triste y bastante penosa.
A fin de cuentas, trata de un gran libro, es gran y mucho chismecito del bueno —con todo y sus momentos lentos y no tan gozosos— que puedo recomendar con un par de reservas: primera, una buena parte del volumen se dedica a plantear la situación que ocurría más allá de lo inmediatamente concerniente a los Paston, eso podría provocar que se pierda el interés por momentos —me pasó a mí—; segunda, que por momentos hay una superabundancia de personajes de los cuales hay que llevar la cuenta, bastantes de ellos con nombres repetidos, y muchos de los cuales no vuelven a aparecer o lo hacen años después, y encima está la cuestión de los de duques, marqueses, en general, de los señores de algún lado —Norfolk, Suffolk, York, etc.— luego son, pues, y como es bien sabido, personas diferentes en momentos diferentes. Es un gran ejercicio de memoria que a mí me causó jaqueca ocasional.
Finalmente, voy a atreverme a lanzar el siguiente cuestionamiento que no busca tanto ser respondido como importunar a quien le cale: ¿quién necesita Bridgerton y esas necedades cuando existen y tenemos a la mano joyas como esta?
Esta jugosa biografía familiar fue escrita por la medievalista británica Helen Ruth Castor (Cambridge, 1968), quien previamente le entregó al mundo, entre otras obras, la que se supone es uno de los estudios biográficos mejor elaborados en torno a la Santa Patrona de Francia, Jehanne Darc —y que pretendía yo empezar a leer estos días, aunque tal vez tenga que esperar un poco. La obra se basa en una extensa bibliografía cuya base está conformada por un acervo epistolar de más de mil documentos escritos por tres generaciones de la familia Paston a lo largo de alrededor setenta años.
Voy a comenzar bien mi desglose con un topónimo: Caister. Y bien podría ser el título de toda la obra pues, en cierta medida, el castillo —ahora una triste sombra en ruinas— juega el papel de MacGuffin durante gran parte del dramma grosso de la familia Paston. Y tiene que ver con mi comentario de apertura: la suerte de los protagonistas tomó el derrotero que siguió precisamente por la decisión de insertarse en el mundo de la gentry vía la educación legal y las oportunidades laborales que de ella derivaron.
De entrada, me resultó muy interesante conocer el proceso de formación de un abogado inglés en el siglo XV, especialmente de uno nacido en el seno de la ruralidad y la relativa pobreza. De hecho, Paston es también un topónimo —en el condado de Norfolk, costa del levante de Inglaterra— y, según entiendo, seguía algo así como una estrategia por parte de algunas familias que buscaban trascender su sustrato de origen para forjarse una identidad nueva asociada al terruño, en una época en la que la cuestión de los noms de famille no estaba tan firmemente conformada como en nuestros días. Y es que resulta, y la misma Castor nos lo dice, que con sus asegunes y todo, la idea de la movilidad social y la noción —ahora muy američki— del self-made man no son precisamente productos de la sociedad industrializada. Sin embargo, precisamente el hecho de que la familia Paston tenía su génesis en uno de los bajos estratos de la sociedad inglesa, constituyó un elemento de recurrencia décadas después que vendría amenazar todos sus logros materiales, especialmente en términos de propiedades, así como el estatus que habían logrado construir.
Ya que no pretendo hacer la síntesis de todo el volumen, porque no sabría bien ni por dónde comenzar a hacerlo, dedicaré unas líneas a un par de puntos únicamente. En primer lugar, no puedo evitar sentir el coraje ajeno con tal desfile casi interminable de intriga, cosa política, una expectativa de justicia basada en el peso político de los contactos de alto rango, y la inevitable desilusión por parte de los más moralistas entre nuestros actores al darse cuenta de que sus principios y sus percepciones eran menos importantes que los contactos de peso político. Me había propuesto reescribir este párrafo de mis notas para el momento de darle forma a la reseña, pero voy a dejarlo así.
En segundo lugar, el capítulo seis que habla de la historia de vida Sir John Fastolf y su relación con John Paston I es probablemente mi favorito. Disfruté en particular la manera en la que se exponen las virtudes y las ansiedades del personaje; esos claroscuros que nos recuerdan que estas personas fueron seres humanos reales, no muy distintos de nosotros, me fascina. Y eso por no mencionar que la ineptitud política de un par de nuestros personajes principales y las consecuencias negativas derivadas de su incapacidad —un tanto “consciente”, ya que no faltó quien les advirtiera— para adecuarse al entorno social en el que vivían me hizo sentir que no estoy solo en este mundo. Sobra decir que estoy comenzando a reconsiderar algunas de mis propias actitudes, por supuesto.
Ahora, si bien la lectura comenzó siendo absolutamente interesante para mí, todo el proceso descrito en el capítulo cuatro, los pormenores sobre los juicios y las fechas, y todo el asunto tras la caída y ejecución del Duke de Suffolk —acusado de traición por mal aconsejar al incompetente rey Enrique VI y hacerlo perder las conquistas en Francia—, terminó siendo un poco tedioso, especialmente con tantos personajes nuevos y los testimonios intercalados que requirieron una relectura de cuando en cuando. Más adelante, sin embargo, el embrollo político que constituyó la carnita y la última fase de la Guerra de las Rosas —hacia el final del libro— es un chismerío sabroso y harto placentero. Eso sí, llegar al 1479 anno Domini, y que de la nada le dieran el tratamiento TWD o GOT a algunos personajes fue cosa triste y bastante penosa.
A fin de cuentas, trata de un gran libro, es gran y mucho chismecito del bueno —con todo y sus momentos lentos y no tan gozosos— que puedo recomendar con un par de reservas: primera, una buena parte del volumen se dedica a plantear la situación que ocurría más allá de lo inmediatamente concerniente a los Paston, eso podría provocar que se pierda el interés por momentos —me pasó a mí—; segunda, que por momentos hay una superabundancia de personajes de los cuales hay que llevar la cuenta, bastantes de ellos con nombres repetidos, y muchos de los cuales no vuelven a aparecer o lo hacen años después, y encima está la cuestión de los de duques, marqueses, en general, de los señores de algún lado —Norfolk, Suffolk, York, etc.— luego son, pues, y como es bien sabido, personas diferentes en momentos diferentes. Es un gran ejercicio de memoria que a mí me causó jaqueca ocasional.
Finalmente, voy a atreverme a lanzar el siguiente cuestionamiento que no busca tanto ser respondido como importunar a quien le cale: ¿quién necesita Bridgerton y esas necedades cuando existen y tenemos a la mano joyas como esta?
June 28, 2015
A few months ago I read Dan Jones' 'The Plantagenets' and really didn't get on with it. Rather than read his sequel about the Wars of the Roses, I'm so glad I found 'Blood and Roses' (which was, fortuitously, a Kindle daily deal).
Helen Castor uses the Paston letters to tell both the national story of the Houses of Lancaster and York, and the local story of the Paston family's progress from tenant farmers to landed gentry.
It's a splendid book which makes the late medieval period and the individual members of the Paston family come alive. Highly enjoyable and informative; for the first time I have a clear understanding of the events, chronology and reasons for the Wars of the Roses!
Helen Castor uses the Paston letters to tell both the national story of the Houses of Lancaster and York, and the local story of the Paston family's progress from tenant farmers to landed gentry.
It's a splendid book which makes the late medieval period and the individual members of the Paston family come alive. Highly enjoyable and informative; for the first time I have a clear understanding of the events, chronology and reasons for the Wars of the Roses!
November 30, 2018
Impressive detail. The research for this book is formidable. It was more about the personal struggles of one family than about the details of the War of the Roses, however, there was just enough general history to allow readers to place the family events in time. As a whole, a great book.
May 15, 2021
My commutes for the past month have been made much more pleasurable by Castor's history of the fifteenth century told through the Paston's letters, which have the "immediacy of an overheard conversation." (17)
The story of their survival, discovery, publication, rediscovery, and republication interested me as much as the 15th-c story. I'm a little surprised the BM had to pay for the ones that had been given to King George III but ended up in the possession of the PM's personal secretary's family. Like the best books, this led me to other books, subjects, maps, searches and recalled fond memories. A friend in graduate school at Toronto studied these documents and well I recall her puzzling over John I and John II and the various editions. Castor writes well and her descriptions often made me smile. This connects to another current interest--Belgium and early Netherlandish paintings.
51 John and Margaret dictated their letters. The practicalities of maintaining correspondence at this time interests me.
233 John II had a passion for books. 334 he bought one of Caxton's early publications, The Game & Play of Chess, in Bruges. I found another article on his library but haven't read it completely. And Fastolf. The fact he kept some of his books in his bathroom makes me wonder what his bath was like (139)
I've looked up some 15th c maps of London and want to locate all the places they lived in London.
Last Paston, another William like the first to start their path to gentility, died in 1732. His daughter Charlotte was married to Thomas Weldon and in charge of disposing what was left of impoverished estate. (None of their manors or monuments or tombs survive--but what seemed most fragile, paper, lasted longer than stone and brick.)
Weldon brought in Rev Francis Blomefield, historian of Norfolk, to look at all the papers. He was impressed with the number of letters and hoped they would not be burnt.
1771 John Worth bought letters as an investment
1774 Acquired by John Fenn who, encouraged by Horace Walpole, published 3 vols in 1787. A big hit
Through George Pretyman, private sec to PM Wm Pitt, Fenn dedicated to King George III to whom he gave originals after publication--at king's request.
1794 Fenn died while preparing 5th volume. His wife died over 20 years later. Letters disappear form sight
1860s Conspiracy theories that the letters were modern forgeries inspired investigation and search by Society of Antiquaries. The letters still in Fenn's possession at his death were discovered in his home, still in his family, and declared authentic. The BM purchased.
James Gairdner of the PRO prepared new edition
1889 Lost letters given to George III found in Pretyman's grandson's home and BM purchased in 1933. [I think Davis's intro should give more details on that process.]
373 "It took nearly a hundred years to establish beyond question the family's position as gentlemen, landowners, and value servants of kings and nobles. It took seven generations more eco the Pastons to reach the apotheosis of a peerage in their own right. Just one generation after that--with the lonely death of another William Paston--title, wealth, and family were gone."
So many tellings of this family's story. I don't think I've ever looked at the Gies's version. Have to check out.
17 Only 5 collections of private letters survive from 15th c.: Paston, Cely, Plumpton, Stonor and Armburgh
The story of their survival, discovery, publication, rediscovery, and republication interested me as much as the 15th-c story. I'm a little surprised the BM had to pay for the ones that had been given to King George III but ended up in the possession of the PM's personal secretary's family. Like the best books, this led me to other books, subjects, maps, searches and recalled fond memories. A friend in graduate school at Toronto studied these documents and well I recall her puzzling over John I and John II and the various editions. Castor writes well and her descriptions often made me smile. This connects to another current interest--Belgium and early Netherlandish paintings.
51 John and Margaret dictated their letters. The practicalities of maintaining correspondence at this time interests me.
233 John II had a passion for books. 334 he bought one of Caxton's early publications, The Game & Play of Chess, in Bruges. I found another article on his library but haven't read it completely. And Fastolf. The fact he kept some of his books in his bathroom makes me wonder what his bath was like (139)
I've looked up some 15th c maps of London and want to locate all the places they lived in London.
Last Paston, another William like the first to start their path to gentility, died in 1732. His daughter Charlotte was married to Thomas Weldon and in charge of disposing what was left of impoverished estate. (None of their manors or monuments or tombs survive--but what seemed most fragile, paper, lasted longer than stone and brick.)
Weldon brought in Rev Francis Blomefield, historian of Norfolk, to look at all the papers. He was impressed with the number of letters and hoped they would not be burnt.
1771 John Worth bought letters as an investment
1774 Acquired by John Fenn who, encouraged by Horace Walpole, published 3 vols in 1787. A big hit
Through George Pretyman, private sec to PM Wm Pitt, Fenn dedicated to King George III to whom he gave originals after publication--at king's request.
1794 Fenn died while preparing 5th volume. His wife died over 20 years later. Letters disappear form sight
1860s Conspiracy theories that the letters were modern forgeries inspired investigation and search by Society of Antiquaries. The letters still in Fenn's possession at his death were discovered in his home, still in his family, and declared authentic. The BM purchased.
James Gairdner of the PRO prepared new edition
1889 Lost letters given to George III found in Pretyman's grandson's home and BM purchased in 1933. [I think Davis's intro should give more details on that process.]
373 "It took nearly a hundred years to establish beyond question the family's position as gentlemen, landowners, and value servants of kings and nobles. It took seven generations more eco the Pastons to reach the apotheosis of a peerage in their own right. Just one generation after that--with the lonely death of another William Paston--title, wealth, and family were gone."
So many tellings of this family's story. I don't think I've ever looked at the Gies's version. Have to check out.
17 Only 5 collections of private letters survive from 15th c.: Paston, Cely, Plumpton, Stonor and Armburgh
January 9, 2026
If you read and enjoyed Dickens Bleak House you will love this history. The title claims "Blood and Roses". It should read the basis of the Chancery system of law in England. There is not much blood, but there is a lot of conflicts between Yorkists and Lancastrians, hence the Roses part.
The Pastons, whose letters form the backbone of the work, lived in Norfolk East Anglia from 1379 -1732. William Paston, whom the book starts with was the son of a plowman, but his father ensured that William got an education. Specifically an education in law. William would die as a sitting Judge in the kings legal system and left a convoluted Sir John Fastolf. I'm going to digress slightly here for two reasons.
First: I was stationed in East Anglia at RAF Bentwaters from 1990 till the base was closed in 93. My Family and I traveled all over East Anglia and I have been to Fastolf's Caister in Norfolk as well as other locations mentioned in the book. Note: Caister when I was there was just a gate house. Second digression. If Fastolf sounds familiar, Shakespeare based his character Falstaff on the same Fastolf. The real Fastolf, unlike the shakespearean character was a noble knight who served with distinction in Calise as commander of the English possession. And, if you read this work you will learn a lot more about what a good and honorable man Fastolf was and what disservice the Bard has done to Fastolf.
As for the rest of the work. Fastolf had a very complicated will. A will that left the Paston's, as executors and beneficiaries, but, and here is where the legal issues come in, the will that was presented did not match the will that other members of the East Anglia community had seen and signed. One of those members was the Duke of Norfolk who John Paston II would spend the next 30 some years in a legal battle with. A battle in the courts that would kill John II, plague, and leave his brother John III to finish. it is this driving Chancery case that forms the backbone. The history is added as how the change of favor at the kings court and the civil war that we know as the War of the Roses effected this particular legal case. As I said in the lead, If you liked Bleak House you will like, nay love this book. If ,as my mother, you put Bleak House down after page 100 or so, find and read another history of the War of the Roses.
The Pastons, whose letters form the backbone of the work, lived in Norfolk East Anglia from 1379 -1732. William Paston, whom the book starts with was the son of a plowman, but his father ensured that William got an education. Specifically an education in law. William would die as a sitting Judge in the kings legal system and left a convoluted Sir John Fastolf. I'm going to digress slightly here for two reasons.
First: I was stationed in East Anglia at RAF Bentwaters from 1990 till the base was closed in 93. My Family and I traveled all over East Anglia and I have been to Fastolf's Caister in Norfolk as well as other locations mentioned in the book. Note: Caister when I was there was just a gate house. Second digression. If Fastolf sounds familiar, Shakespeare based his character Falstaff on the same Fastolf. The real Fastolf, unlike the shakespearean character was a noble knight who served with distinction in Calise as commander of the English possession. And, if you read this work you will learn a lot more about what a good and honorable man Fastolf was and what disservice the Bard has done to Fastolf.
As for the rest of the work. Fastolf had a very complicated will. A will that left the Paston's, as executors and beneficiaries, but, and here is where the legal issues come in, the will that was presented did not match the will that other members of the East Anglia community had seen and signed. One of those members was the Duke of Norfolk who John Paston II would spend the next 30 some years in a legal battle with. A battle in the courts that would kill John II, plague, and leave his brother John III to finish. it is this driving Chancery case that forms the backbone. The history is added as how the change of favor at the kings court and the civil war that we know as the War of the Roses effected this particular legal case. As I said in the lead, If you liked Bleak House you will like, nay love this book. If ,as my mother, you put Bleak House down after page 100 or so, find and read another history of the War of the Roses.
September 12, 2022
If you ever heard about Wars of the Roses and want to learn about it this book could be something for you. Thanks to the guy who tried to keep those letters from Paston Family from 15th century and translated it, we got a brief look of what happened back to the time. I also would love to thank Helen Castor who with her hard work and dedication brought it to modern English language and helped the younger generations to understand what happened back to the time through the eyes of Paston members. I think my definition of medieval times and the people there changed a bit after reading this historical book.
Besides war and plague, living in medieval time could mean that you could be kicked out of your own house and property just because that your enemies ' s great great grand father held it 100 years ago and they had more power than you many moons later. Law of property in medieval surely worked under different principles than now. Women also held the "soft" power that could turn the war upside down by their impact to their husbands. Marriage were also a keycard to reunite or separate allies or enemies. Also remember Churchill always said: "We have no lasting friends, no lasting enemies, only lasting interests." It speaks loudly for this 15th, 16th century in England.
For me, reading this one at the time that Queen Elizabeth 2 just passed away also gave it another meaning.
Besides war and plague, living in medieval time could mean that you could be kicked out of your own house and property just because that your enemies ' s great great grand father held it 100 years ago and they had more power than you many moons later. Law of property in medieval surely worked under different principles than now. Women also held the "soft" power that could turn the war upside down by their impact to their husbands. Marriage were also a keycard to reunite or separate allies or enemies. Also remember Churchill always said: "We have no lasting friends, no lasting enemies, only lasting interests." It speaks loudly for this 15th, 16th century in England.
For me, reading this one at the time that Queen Elizabeth 2 just passed away also gave it another meaning.
December 11, 2021
it was a history book.
April 12, 2024
Excellent book that combines the Paston's local story with the national picture at the time of the Wars of the Roses. Brilliantly conceived and written.
February 18, 2017
Non-fictional account of the lives of the Norfolk based up and coming Paston family at the time of the Wars of the Roses. Some of the Norfolk references are interesting as are the summaries of the political situation (but the latter are not the main point of the book).
Also interesting is: the combination of warring magnates, weak kings and up and coming courtiers determined to rise their status (possible in a society convulsed first by the Black Death - leading to a rise in the power of the lower social classes - and then by political upheaval and revolutions in the true original sense so that loyalty and fidelity could be rewarded or backfire or often both in alternating succession); the contemporary nature of the letters written demonstrating what people in the Paston's strata really thought; the combination of tortuous legal processes, complex inheritance law and practice (with people often torn between giving all their estate to the eldest or splitting it) and the willingness of powerful individuals to take possession by force and then aim for delaying tactics in the court aided by intimidation of their opponents.
However all of this could have been captured in an essay or better as one or two chapters in book on the period.
In practice the actual narrative describing the ins and outs of the legal delays and various seizures are tedious and the actual quotes from letters almost impossible to follow (even having been re-spelt and partly translated) so that one ends up skipping or skimming huge quantities of text.
Also interesting is: the combination of warring magnates, weak kings and up and coming courtiers determined to rise their status (possible in a society convulsed first by the Black Death - leading to a rise in the power of the lower social classes - and then by political upheaval and revolutions in the true original sense so that loyalty and fidelity could be rewarded or backfire or often both in alternating succession); the contemporary nature of the letters written demonstrating what people in the Paston's strata really thought; the combination of tortuous legal processes, complex inheritance law and practice (with people often torn between giving all their estate to the eldest or splitting it) and the willingness of powerful individuals to take possession by force and then aim for delaying tactics in the court aided by intimidation of their opponents.
However all of this could have been captured in an essay or better as one or two chapters in book on the period.
In practice the actual narrative describing the ins and outs of the legal delays and various seizures are tedious and the actual quotes from letters almost impossible to follow (even having been re-spelt and partly translated) so that one ends up skipping or skimming huge quantities of text.
January 14, 2013
Truly a terrific book. The trials and tribulations of a family on the make, their fortunes tied to whoever is head of the family at a certain point in time. Sometimes, led by a figure of good common sense, intelligence and social skill, then if the wider social and political context allows the tangent of their fortunes soars ... Soon enough, however, their good sire and enabler is confined to history and another takes his place. The building blocks so carefully placed are trampled into the ground and backward steps they take. Yet, another comes, and the building restarts, soundly.
And, so it, goes, generation upon generation.
Luck, so fickle is never far from deciding who is, and who is not, fortunate.
Real people living their lives with all the unpredictability and drama that life entails.
Don't miss what is a very good read. Set in a time of historical chaos and upheaval almost unmatched in English history their fates tied to Fortunes Wheel, watch the wheel spin. Watch it fall, only to rise again. A rags to riches story ... set during the, War Of The Roses, where some families made their fortunes and others fell to despair!
And, so it, goes, generation upon generation.
Luck, so fickle is never far from deciding who is, and who is not, fortunate.
Real people living their lives with all the unpredictability and drama that life entails.
Don't miss what is a very good read. Set in a time of historical chaos and upheaval almost unmatched in English history their fates tied to Fortunes Wheel, watch the wheel spin. Watch it fall, only to rise again. A rags to riches story ... set during the, War Of The Roses, where some families made their fortunes and others fell to despair!
May 22, 2016
Interesting book on the lives of several generations of the Paston family from Norwich, set against the backdrop of the Wars of the Roses and the family's ups and downs. Amid the general political history of the period, excerpts from family correspondence give glimpses into the lives of an ordinary family and how the wars progress and affect them. Most of the letters discuss their real estate and an inheritance, which the family finally wins after many years. The family rose from villeinage [tenant farmer status subject to a lord] to gentleman and even peer status then centuries later the wheel of fortune turned again.
"To the fifteenth century Pastons, it had seemed that last remembrance would depend on" [their properties and monuments]. Little remains of them. What did endure was a cache of family letters discovered fortuitously in the 18th century, edited lovingly and published. Thus the family occupy a unique place in English history of the late Middle Ages.
"To the fifteenth century Pastons, it had seemed that last remembrance would depend on" [their properties and monuments]. Little remains of them. What did endure was a cache of family letters discovered fortuitously in the 18th century, edited lovingly and published. Thus the family occupy a unique place in English history of the late Middle Ages.
November 23, 2024
I bought "Blood and Roses" thinking that it would take the reader through the Paston letters, juxtaposed with events of the day. Instead, the book delves deep into the pedestrian financial and marriage concerns of the Pastons. When we do get excerpts, they are in original late-medieval English, which makes them difficult to comprehend. Add to the above the publisher's faux pas of blending hypotheses into nearby text (not the author's fault), and "Blood and Roses" becomes a tedious read.
The book does reveal just how tenuous rights of claim were at that time, particularly if the claimants were not powerful lords. We also get an idea of how difficult it was for a common family to acquire a noble title and acceptance.
The book does reveal just how tenuous rights of claim were at that time, particularly if the claimants were not powerful lords. We also get an idea of how difficult it was for a common family to acquire a noble title and acceptance.
January 15, 2024
This is a detailed account of the activities of three generations of an upwardly mobile family during the Wars of the Roses. It is based on a huge trove of documents that have somehow survived almost 6 hundred years. Unfortunately most of these are legal documents and letters among family members discussing the battles these papers recount. I was hoping for something more personal in terms of the day-to-day life of this family. After a while the recounting of all the bickering (and sometimes actual battles) over property became tedious. The best parts of the book were the accounts of what was going on in the struggle for control of the English throne.
August 11, 2020
The reality television of medieval England. Three generations of the Paston family strive for wealth and power, even as the Lancastrian and Yorkist royal branches clash in the Wars of the Roses. Impeccable research; disappointing humans.
February 19, 2022
'Blood and Roses' is kind of a betwixt and between book. One thing it is not is a collection of the Paston Letters. Although a few are quoted, the letters are the subtext of the book.
Ms. Castor has read and studied the letters and done something just a bit different. She has reconstructed the history of the family, from its origins as peasants after the Great Plague to its demise after the English Civil War. Most of the story takes place from about 1420 to 1490. It covers three generations of the family , with several Johns, Williams, and Margerys. There are a few dominant characters--the family matron Margaret Paston and the unlucky John II--and a plethora of minor characters who come in and out of the story. Lawsuits abound. The legal battles seem to be unending as the Pastons fight to hold onto the manors promised them in the will of Sir John Fastolf.
Ms. Castor weaves the family saga into the tumultuous tapestry that was England in the reigns of Henry VI, Edward IV, and Richard III. As the Pastons seek patrons to assist with their lawsuits, they are also, sometimes inadvertently, choosing sides in the great Lancastrian-Yorkist tug of war. When John II and John III support their patron, the Earl of Oxford, they find themselves on the wrong side of the Battle of Barnet. It takes years of groveling and service to climb back into the good graces of King Edward IV.
As interesting as the story is, it is not a quick read. The book is dense with end notes and detailed explanations of the legal issues. A distressing element is learning that the law was not administered according to statutes so much as the favor of which influential lord or bishop was willing to say a word in your favor--for a price. The letters that survived--over a thousand--are a unique insight into the lives of a middle class family that was trying to move up in society. There is nothing else in the history of England quite like the Paston Letters. This book helps to put that record of a family in the context of their times. Recommended.
Ms. Castor has read and studied the letters and done something just a bit different. She has reconstructed the history of the family, from its origins as peasants after the Great Plague to its demise after the English Civil War. Most of the story takes place from about 1420 to 1490. It covers three generations of the family , with several Johns, Williams, and Margerys. There are a few dominant characters--the family matron Margaret Paston and the unlucky John II--and a plethora of minor characters who come in and out of the story. Lawsuits abound. The legal battles seem to be unending as the Pastons fight to hold onto the manors promised them in the will of Sir John Fastolf.
Ms. Castor weaves the family saga into the tumultuous tapestry that was England in the reigns of Henry VI, Edward IV, and Richard III. As the Pastons seek patrons to assist with their lawsuits, they are also, sometimes inadvertently, choosing sides in the great Lancastrian-Yorkist tug of war. When John II and John III support their patron, the Earl of Oxford, they find themselves on the wrong side of the Battle of Barnet. It takes years of groveling and service to climb back into the good graces of King Edward IV.
As interesting as the story is, it is not a quick read. The book is dense with end notes and detailed explanations of the legal issues. A distressing element is learning that the law was not administered according to statutes so much as the favor of which influential lord or bishop was willing to say a word in your favor--for a price. The letters that survived--over a thousand--are a unique insight into the lives of a middle class family that was trying to move up in society. There is nothing else in the history of England quite like the Paston Letters. This book helps to put that record of a family in the context of their times. Recommended.
August 21, 2022
This was unutterably dull - 400 pages of dense, ancient legal battles about claims to property - which obviously means I loved it. If you have anything more than a passing interest in medieval history you most likely will have come across the Paston family at one point or another, but finding a whole book dedicated to their day-to-day lives in chronological order across multiple generations is a real treat. Castor weaves extracts from the extant Paston letters with the historical narrative taking shape both at court and abroad, and creates a rich tapestry with real human feeling behind it (did little Margery ever get her new girdle from London???). I particularly liked the way she cross-referenced other historical documents to fill the gaps in the Paston letters where conversations had taking place in real life rather than on paper.
Other reviews have mentioned they found this book difficult to get through - it is undeniably dense - and repetitive, but that isn't Castor's fault. John Paston and John Paston II were just really obsessive about getting their castle back. Helen Castor can't change the contents of their letters to be about something other than what they wrote just because contemporary readers don't want to hear about Caister castle and the Duke of Norfolk for the eight millionth time. That said, I do wish she'd focussed more on what familial details the letters do contain. I want to hear if Margery got a new ivory comb, if Margaret's son's missing book of French was ever found, and I'd've killed for a full transcript of the valentine's letters. I realise Castor was having to cut a lot of material to make it all fit into one book (the unabridged Paston letters published in 1904 by James Gairdner filled six full volumes) and that the "action" letters from the brothers took precedent, but I think there was room for more.
All in all, I enjoyed this thoroughly. 4 stars.
Other reviews have mentioned they found this book difficult to get through - it is undeniably dense - and repetitive, but that isn't Castor's fault. John Paston and John Paston II were just really obsessive about getting their castle back. Helen Castor can't change the contents of their letters to be about something other than what they wrote just because contemporary readers don't want to hear about Caister castle and the Duke of Norfolk for the eight millionth time. That said, I do wish she'd focussed more on what familial details the letters do contain. I want to hear if Margery got a new ivory comb, if Margaret's son's missing book of French was ever found, and I'd've killed for a full transcript of the valentine's letters. I realise Castor was having to cut a lot of material to make it all fit into one book (the unabridged Paston letters published in 1904 by James Gairdner filled six full volumes) and that the "action" letters from the brothers took precedent, but I think there was room for more.
All in all, I enjoyed this thoroughly. 4 stars.
August 9, 2020
It felt like a historical and emotional roller-coaster reading about the Pastons. I thoroughly disliked John Paston, whether he was on what we now call 'the spectrum' as he seemed incapable of viewing anyone else's situation in anyway, or he was just that self-centered, he was not a likeable man on paper. I felt for John II, he never really escaped the venomous comments his parents threw at him, and John III was the man whom the family had needed all along.
I already knew quite a bit about this period but at times I think you can look at history in quite a linear way, boom one event after another but this book just allows you to see how quick, almost simultaneously events happening. And it also highlights just how 'ordinary' peoples lives were so wound up in what was happening politically to the exclusion of their worries and legal situations. I was profoundly frustrated for John Paston to begin with, I felt a bit anxious all the way through for the welfare of the 3 John's. And as one reviewer has said, it was nice to see just how much agency, independence and influence women could and did have.
Well worth it. Persevere.
I already knew quite a bit about this period but at times I think you can look at history in quite a linear way, boom one event after another but this book just allows you to see how quick, almost simultaneously events happening. And it also highlights just how 'ordinary' peoples lives were so wound up in what was happening politically to the exclusion of their worries and legal situations. I was profoundly frustrated for John Paston to begin with, I felt a bit anxious all the way through for the welfare of the 3 John's. And as one reviewer has said, it was nice to see just how much agency, independence and influence women could and did have.
Well worth it. Persevere.
May 9, 2020
This book is hard evidence for the truth of the saying that "Truth is stranger than fiction". I had heard of the Pastons as witnesses to some of the major events of the 15th century, but had never had an inkling of how interesting - and often exciting - their own lives were. It is almost like a novel, in that you long to know what happened next. Although John Paston, whose correspondence with his wife Margaret is the best-known element in the Paston story, is not a particularly sympathetic character, several members of his family behave quite heroically. In particular, his second son, John III (so called to differentiate him from the eldest son, John II!) was courageous, long-suffering and pragmatic. John III's sister Margery is another character we can't help but admire, sticking loyally to her would-be husband, a family servant, even though it meant estrangement from her mother. If, like most of the people who start this book, you read it in expectation of a dry narrative of facts and dates, you will be delighted by it. Helen Castor's writing style is impeccable.
January 16, 2023
Many might be familiar with the Paston letters and their part in the war of the roses, some may not be. Either way Helen Castor's overview provides a clear and digestable account of the letters and the family's involvement with the wars. Direct historical and personal reference brings ordinary lives into existing reality, the reader can become involved in the family story as it unfolds. The narration from the author is seemless and is drawn with aplomb.
Men and women of the time have to adapt and follow their 'side'. Yorkists and Lancastrians alike will recognise the lack of choice where loyalty and position are to be faught for. The related lives of all involved are very touching, often amusing and yet tragic.
These are real and alive. A must read for all.
Men and women of the time have to adapt and follow their 'side'. Yorkists and Lancastrians alike will recognise the lack of choice where loyalty and position are to be faught for. The related lives of all involved are very touching, often amusing and yet tragic.
These are real and alive. A must read for all.
June 25, 2023
For its small size, Blood & Roses is a dense read. It's not a page-turner. Nevertheless, it is nothing short of a gem. To use Horace Walpole's words, the Paston Letters are anything but a "cold narrative" of the turbulent times during which the Pastons lived. Helen Castor takes this narrative to a higher level in her very well written and well researched book.
I particularly enjoyed how the retelling of the War of the Roses was merely the backdrop to the story of the Pastons. Watching their tale unfold amidst the constant changing of the political winds and seeing how they and their nemeses maneuvered amongst the powerful to gain the favor they needed to win the lands and houses being fought over was a splendid step back in time.
I particularly enjoyed how the retelling of the War of the Roses was merely the backdrop to the story of the Pastons. Watching their tale unfold amidst the constant changing of the political winds and seeing how they and their nemeses maneuvered amongst the powerful to gain the favor they needed to win the lands and houses being fought over was a splendid step back in time.
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