Bureaucrat, the Correspondent, and the Wars of the Roses

The two texts in this volume, The Second Continuation of the Chronicle of Crowland Abbey and Dominic Mancini’s Usurpation of Richard III, are the principal contemporary witnesses to the Wars of the Roses, particularly to the opaque and controversial reign of Richard III. The Crowland chronicler – an important but still unidentified bureaucrat – is intimately acquainted with the workings of the monarchy of Edward IV, whom he admires and criticizes, but he is apparently troubled by the monarchy of Richard III. He tells much (but not quite all) that he has seen on the inside. Mancini – a foreigner sent to London on some unknown mission by a minister of the French king – is the classic outsider, working the streets like a foreign correspondent to piece together an account for his overseas sponsors. He tells more than he actually knows, employing his acute powers of observation and inference to compensate for his lack of access. Together the bureaucrat and the correspondent provide the core narrative of the Wars of the Roses. This new edition brings together both texts in a single volume for the first time, each presented with a clear facing English translation and accompanied by explanatory notes. Readers will find up-to-date summaries of current interpretations and thorough discussions of historical and political background – all keyed to particular words and lines and passages, making the coverage useful and accessible to a wide audience.