Royal Minorities of Medieval and Early Modern England

Professor of History, University of North Carolina, Pembroke, USA.

• Introduction: Woe to Thee, O Land!; C.Beem The Minority of Henry III in the Context of Europe; C.Hillen  & F.Wiswall The More Things Change: Isabella and Mortimer, Edward III, and the Painful Delay of a Royal Majority; J.A.Bothwell Richard II and the Fiction of Minority Rule; G.Dodd The Minority of Henry VI, King of England and of France; R.A.Griffiths A Story of Failure: The Minority of Edward V; M.Hicks Have Not Wee a Noble Kynge?: The Minority of Edward VI; C.Beem Woe to Thee, O Land?: Some Final Thoughts; C.Beem

"Charles Beem has assembled an impressive lineup of historians well-acquainted with their subjects to illuminate the history and significance of royal minorities over three centuries. This is a well-conceived and well-organized book dealing with an important topic that has not been covered in this kind of detail before." - Chris Given-Wilson, Professor of Late Medieval History, University of St Andrews"Royal minorities have always intrigues historians. The ultimate anomaly in the dynastic principle arose where the enormous panoply of royal power had to be borne by monarchs who at their accession were sometimes only adolescents, sometimes barely within the age of reason, or sometimes mere mewling babies. The monarchs in question - Henry III, Edward III, Richard II, Henry VI, Edward V, and Edward VI - form the subjects of the studies drawn together in this new collection, authored respectively, by Christian Hillen and Frank Wswall, James bothwell, Gwilym Dodd, Ralph Griffiths, Michael Hicks, and Charles beem. - W. Mark Ormrod, Journal of British Studies Book Review