Blood Roses: The Houses of Lancaster and York Before the Wars of the Roses

by Kathryn Warner

The Wars of the Roses didn’t start on the Blood Roses traces it back to the beginning.Starting in 1245 with the founding of the House of Lancaster, Kathryn Warner follows a twisted path of political intrigue, bloody war and fascinating characters over 200 years. From the Barons’ Wars to the overthrowing of Edward II, Eleanor of Castile to Isabella of France, and true love to Loveday, Blood Roses reframes some of the biggest events of the medieval era – not as stand-alone conflicts, but as part of a long-running family feud that would have drastic consequences.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Medieval, Historical, Plantagenet, European History, 14th Century

420 pages, Kindle Edition

Published October 8, 2018

About the author

I grew up in the north of England, and hold two degrees in medieval history and literature from the University of Manchester. I have run a blog about King Edward II (reigned 1307 to 1327) since 2005, have had work published about him in the prestigious academic journal the English Historical Review (founded 1886) and in the academic essay collection Fourteenth-Century England, and have appeared talking about him in the BBC documentary Quest for Bannockburn. I also appeared in a documentary about Edward II shown on the German-French TV channel Arte in late 2019, and have given a paper about him at the International Medieval Congress at the University of Leeds.

My first book, titled Edward II: The Unconventional King, was released in October 2014, and my biography of Edward II's queen Isabella of France (c. 1295-1358) was published in March 2016. My third book is an account of Edward's murder in 1327 or survival past that year, which came out in June 2017, and my fourth is a bio of Edward II's great-grandson Richard II, published October 2017. My fifth book, Blood Roses, came out in October 2018, and is an account of the royal houses of Lancaster and York from 1245 to 1399. My sixth was also published in October 2018 and is a biography of Edward II's malevolent favourite Hugh Despenser the Younger. My next two books came out in 2019: a travel guide to places in the UK associated with Edward II, called Following in the Footsteps of Edward II, and a biography of Edward III's queen Philippa of Hainault. A joint bio of Edward II's nieces Eleanor, Margaret and Elizabeth de Clare came out in February 2020, and a work of social history called Living in Medieval England: The Turbulent Year of 1326 was also published that year, A book about the Despenser family from 1261 to 1439 will come next, and a bio of Edward III's son/Henry IV's father John of Gaunt, second duke of Lancaster, is due out in 2021.

Projects I'm working on are: a joint bio of Edward II's five sisters; a joint bio of Edward III's granddaughters; a social history of London between 1300 and 1350; and a book about the medieval Beaumont family. And I'm sure there'll be plenty more after that!

Reviews

[Lisa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Aiming to tell the story of the houses of York and Lancaster before the Wars of the Roses that pitted family against family in a fight for the English throne and ultimately led to the rise of the Tudors, Blood Roses is the latest work by Kathryn Warner, who specialises in the reign of Edward II.

There are strengths and flaws to this book. Warner is a decent historian who writes well and, for the most part, clearly – there is a touch of emotive writing here and there that’s more suitable for a blog post than a history book and some typos (including one giving Henry VI’s birthyear as 1321, not 1421), but that’s neither here nor there (I’ve seen far worse from the publisher). The first sections of the book, focusing on Edmund ‘Crouchback’, the first Earl of Lancaster, and his sons, Thomas and Henry, both of whom succeeded as the Earl of Lancaster, is very strong and informative.

However, it’s when dealing with Henry, Earl of Lancaster’s children that the book runs into its first lot trouble. He had a lot of children and Warner is determined to trace them and their descendants throughout the years. It makes the book unwieldly, the narrative cluttered and Warner is constantly pausing whenever she mentions an individual to reference their lineage and descent so we know exactly why she’s talking about them. I’m not sure there’s a better way to deal with the history, except maybe dividing each chapter into subsections dealing with each branch of the family (e.g. “descendants of Eleanor of Lancaster”, “descendants of Henry of Grosmont”), but it is a flaw in the book. I also found that the main branch of the Lancastrian family felt a bit lost (or neglected) by this attention to detail and figures like John of Gaunt, Henry IV and his children, are glossed over. I know Warner is due to a publish a biography of Gaunt next year so maybe she didn’t want to repeat herself and while it’s obviously important to trace all lines of descent and show how interconnected the nobility was, especially in the lead up to the Wars of the Roses, it also feels a bit… well, neglectful, especially given the subtitle seems to be suggesting that Warner’s focus here is to give a backstory to the Wars of the Roses. This neglect may also account for Warner’s error that that the eldest of Henry IV’s daughters, Blanche of England, died childless. She, in fact, gave birth to a son, named Ruprecht or Rupert, nicknamed ‘the English’, in 1406 when she was only 14 (her husband was 28), and this son died in 1426.

Additionally, because the House of York is much younger than the House of Lancaster, by time Edmund of Langley arrives on the scene, he’s only vaguely glimpsed amongst the numerous mentions of the Lancaster descendants, and his children, and the roles they played, are very much neglected. In the end, I felt this could easily have been two books – the story of the House of Lancaster leading up to the reign of Henry IV, which is relatively well-served by this book, and the story of Edmund of Langley and his three children, which isn’t. For instance, there’s more detail about Edmund’s son and heir, Edward, Duke of York in Warner’s biography of Richard II than there is here even though he’s literally the second Duke of York to ever exist. Honestly, if you care about the origins of the House of York and not so much about the descendants of Henry, Earl of Lancaster, prepare to be deeply disappointed.

This whole problem of an overabundance of information is perhaps best evidenced by Warner’s epilogue in which she covers twenty-two years, the reigns of Henry IV and Henry V, and the fates of the descendants of the first earl of Lancaster in a whirlwind ten pages. It’s bewildering, the sheer amount of information attempting to be crammed into as short amount of time as possible.

It is odd, too, that Warner ends her detailed exploration of Lancaster and York in 1400, as the reigns of Henry IV, Henry V and the first thirty years of Henry VI’s are far more vital to understanding the Wars of the Roses than, say, Edward II’s problems with Thomas, Earl of Lancaster. Which is why I do think the book would’ve been better if it had focused on the Lancasterian family until their rise to the throne instead of trying to be about both Lancaster and York in the lead up to the Wars of the Roses.

And while Warner does obsessively trace the descendants of Edmund, Earl of Lancaster, she tends to ignore discussing those who married outside of England. The daughters of John of Gaunt, Philippa and Catalina/Catherine of Lancaster, became queens of Portugal and Castile respectively and Philippa is given a few lines of summary, being the mother of the Illustrious Generation (no mention is made of her descendent, Isabella of Portugal, Duchess of Burgundy playing a vital role in the Hundred Years War), but Catalina/Catherine disappears into the ether. The daughters of Henry IV, Blanche and Philippa of England, are discussed only in relation to their marriage and issue. Despite Philippa’s notable career as Queen of Norway, Denmark and Sweden, Warner only notes that she “had no surviving children”. I suppose this isn’t relevant to the Wars of the Roses or English history or to Warner's desire to catalogue the descendents of the Lancastrians, and I suppose it reflects Warner's decision to effectively stop her narrative at 1400 (after all, Henry IV’s daughters married after that date), these are all women who are notable Lancastrian figures. To ignore Philippa of England’s achievements in favour of saying she had no children... well, it comes uncomfortably close to reducing a woman’s value to whether she has children or not and it is extremely surprising to find it in Warner’s work.

There are some historical issues – some rather broad statements that don’t take into consideration the differing accounts or historical debates (we don’t know where Humphrey of Gloucester, the son of Thomas of Woodstock and Eleanor de Bohun, died, for instance), which can be understandable in a book that covers so much history. There is the incorrect claim that Blanche of England died childless, as mentioned above, and Warner repeats her(?) theory from her Richard II biography that Joan of Kent and Thomas Holland lied when they claimed they married and consummated their marriage in 1340 after falling in love at a later date and wished to be together despite Joan’s totally legal marriage to William Montacute. There is no evidence for this theory and being grossed out because Joan was 12 and Holland 24 in 1340 is fair, normal and actually a welcome change from the romanticisation of their marriage, but it’s not evidence that they faked their marriage. Warner does not provide evidence or explain her logic here, it’s just a bald “this may have happened” statement.

This does sound very negative and I should make it clear this is an enjoyable, strong work that does, at times, falter or become overwhelming. I really enjoyed Warner’s coverage of the first Earls of Lancaster and appreciated the way she was able to establish Henry of Grosmont’s character, even when the narrative was beginning to be swamped by covering so many individuals. I enjoyed her comments on Constance/Constanza of Castile. It’s really only at the end of the book that things began to get complicated and rushed.

3 stars.

[BAM doesn’t answer to her real name · Rating 2 out of 5]

ROYAL READS PROJECT 2024

Water….water, I need water, or a nice Riesling. Yeah I’m going for the wine. Just give me the entire bottle. Good lord my brain is parched. I had a feeling the author would more than likely source the historians I’ve read. Wait! Pour me another if you would, darling. Thank you. Ah so refreshing. Most unlike this book. I’m to the point that I really do not wish to finish. Oh no, dear, I’ll finish this delightful bottle. I have no plans to finish this book. Dare I say dull book? I feel like I’ve read at least 20 pages only to learn I’ve read six. And I cannot blame the vintage. I blame it on the base, simple, mind numbing storytelling. I’ve read no facts I had not already come across. Even about the earliest kings, I got nothin’. I suppose if one has had little to no exposure to medieval period this then may interest you. It discusses all of the main events, all of the major players, but fluff piece is all that is now coming to my wine addled mind. People are born, then suddenly grown or they start the book grown and before you know it one is either dead or has regressed to babyhood. It really does the reader a disservice if the reader is new to this sub genre. Do I recommend it? The Riesling oh my yes! This book not to most people.

[Starless One]

I enjoyed Kathryn Warner’s biographies of Edward II and Hugh Despenser the Younger very much, so I was certain I would like Blood Roses as well. Unfortunately, that was not the case. The book provides an overview of the period 1245-1422, but it is badly structured, oddly repetitive, and dry as dust. An editor would have made all the difference here.

Warner does little more than list names and events, pointing out who was related to whom and when and how they died. At some points, it feels like reading a family tree in written form. She just drops hundreds of names (some of them belonging to people only very marginally related to the houses of York and Lancaster) and no one, apart from maybe a few leading experts, could possibly tell all of them apart. As for the leading experts, I doubt they have need of this book.

When introducing new additions to the family trees, she also never fails to point out who these children were named after, which is not only pointless and very speculative but also adds even more confusion to the tangle of names. I can only say that readers like me who are already familiar with the Late Middle Ages do not need these constant reminders of who was related to whom and readers who aren’t quite up-to-date on the fourteenth-century who’s who will be hopelessly lost trying to keep track of hundreds of nobles with very similar names. A narrower, more detailed focus on only the core members of the houses in question would have made for a more rewarding reading experience.

My biggest problem with this book is that it does not at all deliver what was promised on the cover. Instead of expounding the histories of the houses of Lancaster and York before the Wars of the Roses, it focusses primarily on the Lancaster family, only to end, for some inexplicable reason, with Richard II’s death in 1400. What follows is a brief epilogue describing the events of 1400-22, but nothing at all on the period 1422-55… 1455 being the year in which the Wars of the Roses actually began. Why would you promise a book on the history leading up to a conflict and then leave out the actual 33 years immediately preceding it? The years which saw the actual rise of the House of York which did not even exist for most of the period this book actually covers? I’m absolutely baffled by this decision and the misleading title of this book and can only suspect that the recent increase in interest in the Wars of the Roses led to this questionable marketing choice when what Warner actually meant to do was write a history of the House of Lancaster during the 13th and 14th century.

The fact that Warner does not engage very deeply or critically with her sources, on the occasion that she mentions them at all, makes this book unsuitable for historians. I’m afraid that amateur lovers of history won’t have much use for it either due to the overwhelming name-dropping and lack of structure. The research effort which went into this must have been immense, but the execution is so flawed that I cannot recommend it to anyone. 2.5/5

[Lois · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.75 stars rounded up
This is a well researched history of The Lancaster 's.
This ends a few decades before the start of the War of the Roses.
I liked this but it is mislabeled.
This isn't as lay reader friendly as usual with this author's books.

[Pamela · Rating 1 out of 5]

The unending deluge of names and dates would be a great resource for someone who wants to write the STORY.

[Caroline · Rating 3 out of 5]

Although I'm extremely interested in this period in English history, I nearly abandoned this book, and I took a break from it to read some other things. It was very confusing and required lots of focus to follow, and not only because everyone seemed to be named Eleanor, Blanche, Henry, and Thomas. Warner knows A LOT, and unfortunately she sacrificed the coherence of her narrative to throw in everything she knows, probably in an effort to highlight the interconnectedness of these people, but it didn't always do anything but make your head spin. The paragraphs, and therefore the chapters, and sometimes even the sentences, wandered from thing to thing because a person would be named, and then a summary of their life would be dropped in, leaving you scratching your head at the end of the paragraph (what were we talking about, again?). The genealogical tables at the front are highly valuable in exposing all the interrelationships of the English nobility at this time - every marriage made required a dispensation because they were literally ALL descended from Henry III one way or another, and mostly were all descended from a brother of Edward I.
This book is mostly about the large and powerful Lancaster family - the Yorkists didn't really even exist until nearly 1400 - and since I'm kind of a Yorkist that made this more 'backgroundy stuff' than anything else. I'm glad I stuck with it, but I won't remember much about the millions of Eleanors and Blanches, and would have to refer to it again if I ever read something else on the subject. Thank goodness for libraries.

[Denise · Rating 2 out of 5]

Interesting history, but good grief, this was a slog...
Excessively dry - no person is mentioned without giving their date of birth and degree of relation to every other person they share a drop of blood or a bed with (or may have done, or possibly could be imagined to have, or... you get the gist), rendering the whole thing tedious and repetitive, an endless list of names and dates written up in a style one can only assume was intended to bore the reader to death.

[Sarah u · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thought this was a great book.

It covers the rise of the House of Lancaster from Henry III’s children to the reign of Henry IV in a great amount of detail, and opens lots of doors to further study options for the reader. The House of York’s origins crops up towards the end when it is established during the reign of Edward III.

Detailed, clearly written, and covering a lot of ground, I thought this book did a great job of introducing some key figures from the House of Lancaster in particular. Recommended.

Read on kindle: no noticeable formatting errors or typos, high quality images included.

[Eric · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book provided a very detailed history of the origins of the Houses of Lancaster and York in 13th and 14th century England, and how the complex family history created long-term conflicts which (at least in this author's opinion) made the War of the Roses virtually inevitable.

This provided me with more than enough genealogical information to understand the background for England's travails in the 15h Century. In fact, it provides an almost overwhelming level of detail on the tangled family trees and inheritance of titles in the English nobility during period; I might have seen information on the birth, marriages, offspring (legitimate and illegitimate) and deaths of ALL of the lords and ladies who had significant roles in the disputes over royal succession. Not necessarily a defect in the book, and in fact may be necessary for more serious fans of Medieval English history, but the complexity of the family trees (and recurring use of the same names and titles) made reading some of the chapters a bit of a slog for me.

[Susan · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was packed full of detailed facts primarily about the House of Lancaster prior to the Wars of the Roses and then the beginnings of the history of the House of York. However, I felt it lacked the storytelling element needed to pull these facts together to make an engaging narrative. It read rather like a list of births, deaths and marriages arranged year by year, which began to get confusing particularly with all the people called Henry, Thomas, Blanche Philippa etc. I would have found it easier had these facts been assembled more clearly into themes to read more like mini biographies of the key players.

Nevertheless, I enjoyed the read and picked up a lot of information I hadn't known or really focused on before For example, it (kind of) makes sense to marry your children off at aged 4 or 5 to 'protect' them from being abducted, forcibly raped and then married in their teens in order to access their lands and wealth.

[Nat Medlen · Rating 1 out of 5]

I actually listened to it on the Audible app, but that was not a choice for a format at the time I entered this review. I am a huge fan of history, as evidenced by my previous reading list and chose this book because it led up to a period that has long intrigued me. I wanted to like the book, I really did, but it just never got my interest in any appreciable way. I wanted there to be anecdotal stories about some of the events of the period that led to the Lancasters and Yorks coming in to conflict, but there just weren't any to speak of. Most of the time it was just simply this person did this and then they came back and then did this. There is little to no color in the events, rather there is just chronology and travelogue. This was just not what I signed up for. It could have been great, or at least greater, but it just never materialized for me.

[Caroline · Rating 1 out of 5]

I do love my history, especially anything to do with the Wars of the Roses, House Lancaster, and my personal favourite House of York.

The author was very thorough with her research and mapped out the extensive genealogies of these two famous dynasties, however, it got confusing to keep track of everyone since it was very common for medieval families to recycle names,ie: Henry, Edward, Edmund, Maud, and the list goes on.

I feel like this could've been two books and I would've liked to see the key events and key players that eventually led to the Wars of the Roses, it just was a big genealogical map and it got very confusing, very quickly!!

I would've liked to read more about the House of York but it was just a bleep, true, House of York is very young compared to the House of Lancaster so I was thoroughly disappointed.

[Katelyn · Rating 2 out of 5]

I wanted to like this one, but it was not great as an audiobook. Zero entertainment value. It is a listing of names, marriages, deaths, births, and titles that confused even me, who has read everything I can get my hands on, up to and including academic sources on this time period. It is better off being treated as a reference directory for anyone wanting to cross check the date of something they're researching. Two stars awarded for reference value. Very precise.

[Annika · Rating 5 out of 5]

Blood Roses by Kathryn Warner

This is one of the best books I have ever read. I really liked this book because it explains in a clear way the background to the war between the House of York and the House of Lancaster for the throne of England. If you want to read an accessible history book of this time period this book is for you.

[Marilyn]

This book was about as exciting as watching paint dry. There are plenty of geology tables up front to study but besides that the author gives us to read page after page after page of, you guessed it, geology. Boring, boring, boring. Save your money.

[Tam Wallace · Rating 2 out of 5]

Unfortunately, the author kept jumping forward and back in the timeline so it was very difficult to read.

[Alan Olson · Rating 3 out of 5]

History is about people and actions, but this book seemed to want to account for every person and all their actions. I stopped reading it early on.

[Peter · Rating 3 out of 5]

Detailed story of the House of Lancaster up until 1400. Lots of information, but the detail, especially about family members, was a bit unstructured, and hampered understanding.

[Annette Rodriguez · Rating 3 out of 5]

Really cool information but presented in dry, textbook format.

[JP · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not exactly the most engaging book, rather dry and lots of listing of genealogy and what not.

[Kara · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a sprawling book, covering the kings, queens, princes, princesses, and nobles of the British Isles and Europe from the 1250 to 1422, all about their births, deaths and marriages - and little else.

The book becomes a reciting of names and their family connections by blood and marriage, and quickly becomes monotonous. I kept waiting for the book to actually start, since it all felt like it was just background information.