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The Royal House of York
Books About the Yorkist Kings
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The House of York
The Yorkists: The History of a Dynasty by Anne Crawford. Examines the truth about the controversial Yorkist kings, including the celebrated murders of young King Edward V and his brother.
Richard, Duke of York: King by Right by Matthew Lewis. Biography of the third Duke of York, whose unquenchable desire for the throne ignited the Wars of the Roses. He was the father of Edward IV and Richard III.
On the Trail of the Yorks by Kristie Dean. Explores the places associated with members of the royal York dynasty, including cathedrals, castles, battlefields and manor houses.
Cecily Neville
Cecily Neville: Mother of Kings by Amy License. Biography of the mother of English kings Edward IV and Richard III.
Queen By Right by Anne Easter Smith. Novel about Cecily Neville, mother of kings Edward IV and Richard III. History remembers Cecily facing an attacking army while holding the hands of her two young sons. This book reveals how she stepped into her destiny, beginning with her marriage to Richard, Duke of York. Together they faced personal tragedies and deadly political intrigue. Click here for other novels by Anne Easter Smith.
Red Rose, White Rose by Joanna Hickson. Fiction. The powerful story of Cecily Neville, torn between the two sides of the War of the Roses, told through the eyes of Cecily and her half-brother Cuthbert.
King Edward IV
Edward IV by Charles Ross and Ralph A. Griffiths. Biography from the Yale English Monarchs series.
Edward IV by Michael Hicks. Biography of the first Yorkist king. Assessment of Edward IV is inextricably bound up not only in the record of his reign, but also his baleful legacy. This book explores how his reputation has changed.
Edward IV: The Summer King by A. J. Pollard. In 1461, Edward Earl of March, a handsome 18-year old, usurped the English throne from Henry VI. His reign brought economic and industrial expansion, but he squandered his talents in a frenzy of excess.
Edward IV by Hannes Kleineke. Biography. Was Edward a vain and self-indulgent playboy, or was his life cut tragically short, preventing him from establishing the 'new monarchy' associated with Henry VII?
Edward IV and the Wars of the Roses by David Santiuste. The most effective general of the Wars of the Roses, Edward IV died in his bed, undefeated in battle. This book examines his military role and the war in which he played a vital part.
Eleanor: The Secret Queen by John Ashdown-Hill. Argues that 15th century king Edward IV secretly married Eleanor Talbot and therefore his marriage to his official wife, Elizabeth Woodville, was bigamous.
Elizabeth Woodville & Her Family
Elizabeth: England's Slandered Queen by Arlene Okerlund. Biography of King Edward IV's wife, Elizabeth Woodville. She has traditionally been portrayed as a scheming opportunist, but this book depicts her as an adored wife, distraught mother of the two lost Princes in the Tower, and innocent queen slandered by politicians.
Elizabeth Woodville by David Baldwin. The wife of Edward IV has been championed and vilified by five centuries of historians, dramatists, and novelists. This biography examines what she was really like.
Elizabeth Woodville: The Real Story of the 'White Queen' by David MacGibbon. Biography of the exceptionally beautiful, influential wife of King Edward IV. First published in 1938.
Edward IV & Elizabeth Woodville: A True Romance by Amy License. When the tall, athletic Edward of York married a widow five years his elder, it was to prove an unpopular decision. This book reassesses the queen and her husband.
The Last Knight Errant: Sir Edward Woodville and the Age of Chivalry by Christopher Wilkins. The first full biography of a pivotal figure in English history. Sir Edward (brother of Elizabeth Woodville), carved out an important role for himself in the 15th century, but his reputation suffered at the hands of King Richard III.
The Women of the Cousins' War: The Duchess, the Queen, and the King's Mother by Philippa Gregory, David Baldwin, and Michael Jones. An illustrated look at the lives of three women during the Wars of the Roses: Jacquetta, Duchess of Bedford; Elizabeth Woodville, wife of Edward IV; and Margaret Beaufort, mother of Henry VII.
The Woodvilles: The Wars of the Roses and England's Most Infamous Family by Susan Higginbotham. In 1464, King Edward IV revealed his secret marriage to Elizabeth Woodville, a beautiful widow. The controversial match brought Elizabeth's large family into the thick of the Wars of the Roses.
Fiction
The White Queen by Philippa Gregory. A novel about Elizabeth Woodville, wife of Edward IV. First book in the Cousins War series. Followed by The Lady of the Rivers , about Jacquetta of Luxembourg; and The Kingmaker's Daughter , about Anne Neville; and The White Princess , about Elizabeth of York, wife of Henry VII.
The King's Grey Mare by Rosemary Hawley Jarman. Novel about Elizabeth Woodville, queen of King Edward IV. Beautiful beyond belief, she becomes the tool of her evil mother, who is determined that her daughter should sit on the throne of England. Fiction.
The Princes in the Tower: Did Richard III Murder His Nephews, Edward V & Richard of York? by Josephine Wilkinson. This study returns to the original sources, presenting a new theory about what really happened and why.
The Lost Prince: The Survival of Richard of York by David Baldwin. Did Richard, Duke of York, the younger of the Princes in the Tower, survive his imprisonment? This book suggests that Richard Plantagenet, an unusually well-educated bricklayer who died in 1550, might have been the lost prince.
Richard III and the Princes in the Tower by Gerald Prenderghast. The fate of Richard III's vanished nephews, Edward V and Richard of York, remains controversial. This book examines their possible fates.
Fictional Accounts
A Secret Alchemy: A Novel by Emma Darwin. Tells the story of the Princes in the Tower through the eyes of their mother, Elizabeth Woodville; her brother Anthony; and a modern historian.
To the Tower Born: A Novel of the Lost Princes by Robin Maxwell. This fictional account tells the story of the lost princes through the eyes of a printer's daughter and her friend Elizabeth of York, sister of the little princes.
The Lost King: Richard III and the Princes in the Tower by Alison Prince. Children's book. A fictional look at the brief reign of Richard III, told through the eyes of his nephews' nursemaid. What really happened to the Princes in the Tower? Was Richard responsible?
King Richard III
Richard the Third by Paul Murray Kendall. This respected biography ignores Tudor accounts depicting King Richard III as an archvillain and instead portrays him as the man he was, leaving moral judgements to the reader.
Richard III: The King in the Car Park by Terry Breverton. This biography places Richard in the context of his times and assesses the likelihood of other candidates put forward to have killed his nephews, the Princes in the Tower.
Richard III: The Road to Leicester by Amy License. Why did England's Richard III seize the throne? Did he murder the Princes in the Tower? This book provides an introduction to the controversial king.
Richard III: England's Black Legend by Desmond Seward. Biography. The author argues that Shakespeare's Richard is closer to reality than the image of a betrayed hero favoured by his modern defenders.
Richard III, The Young King to Be by Josephine Wilkinson. The first of a two-volume biography. It concentrates on Richard's early life, from his birth in 1452 to his marriage to Anne Neville.
Richard III & His Era
Richard III by Michael Hicks. This study strips away propaganda to rescue Richard from his critics and supporters alike, examining Richard's life in its 15th century context.
Richard III by David Baldwin. An in-depth study of the controversial king's dealings with his contemporaries.
Richard III by David Hipshon. Explores Richard III's reign and the controversies surrounding it in the context of the period.
Richard III by Charles Ross. Assesses the king within the context of his violent age and explores why he usurped the throne, the belief that he ordered the murder of the Princes in the Tower, and the death of the Yorkist dynasty with Richard himself.
Richard III: From Contemporary Chronicles, Letters and Records by Keith Dockray and Peter Hammond. First published in 1988 as Richard III: A Reader in History and republished in 1997 as Richard III: A Source Book, this book has been rewritten to incorporate recent scholarship.
The Betrayal of Richard III: An Introduction to the Controversy by V. B. Lamb, revised by Peter Hammond. This survey the life and times of Richard III examines the contemporary evidence for the events of his reign. The original edition was first published in 1959; this revised edition was published in 2015.
The History of King Richard III by Sir Thomas More. Much of what is known about Richard III stems from this biography by Thomas More (who was executed during the reign of Henry VIII). Focusing on the final years of Richard's life, More describes a man corrupted by the thrill of power.
Richard III's Death, Grave, and Remains
Richard III and the Death of Chivalry by David Hipshon. Bosworth was the last English battle in which the monarch relied on feudal retainers. Power politics led to the king's death on the battlefield, the death of chivalry, and the end of the Middle Ages.
The Bones of a King: Richard III Rediscovered by the Greyfriars Research Team. The official behind-the-scenes story of the discovery of Richard III's remains, based on the research of the specialists directly involved.
The Last Days of Richard III and the Fate of His DNA by John Ashdown-Hill. A detailed exploration of Richard's last 150 days, his burial, and the construction of his tomb. This fully revised and expanded edition includes the discoveries of the Leicester dig where the king's skeleton was found.
The King's Grave: The Discovery of Richard III's Lost Burial Place and the Clues It Holds by Philippa Langley and Michael Jones. Written in alternating chapters, with Richard's 15th century life contrasting with a 21st century eyewitness account of the search and discovery of his body.
Digging for Richard III: The Search for the Lost King by Mike Pitts. The story of the archaeology behind the dig that found the remains of Richard III, told through photographs, diagrams, and firsthand accounts.
Other Richard III Topics
Richard III: A Royal Enigma by Sean Cunningham. Reproduces key surviving documents from the king's short reign, including letters in Richard's own hand and extracts from official papers. The original sources are woven together by a brief narrative history of the reign. Fully illustrated in color.
Richard III and the Murder in the Tower by Peter A. Hancock. In 1483, William, Lord Hastings was hustled from a meeting of the Royal Council and executed on Tower Green. This book sheds light on that mystery, reveals the key role of William Catesby in Richard III's ascent to the throne, and provides an explanation for the fate of the Princes in the Tower.
The Family of Richard III by Michael Hicks. The Wars of the Roses were quarrels within the Plantagenet family. The York dynasty won the first war, but the Yorkist establishment shared in Richard III's destruction. This book concludes with an analysis of Richard's DNA and his 'family' as it exists today.
Richard III: A Ruler and His Reputation by David Horspool. This biography examines what we know of Richard's life and the way his reputation has been formed and re-formed over centuries.
The Mythology of Richard III by John Ashdown-Hill. Was Richard III abnormal, a tyrant, a serial killer? What is the truth about his marriage and his last days? This book unravels the web of myths.
Richard III's 'Beloved Cousyn': John Howard and the House of York by John Ashdown-Hill. Examines why Howard chose to support Richard, what secrets he knew about Edward IV, and what he had to do with the fate of the 'Princes in the Tower'.
The World of Richard III by Kristie Dean. A journey through the landscape of Richard's time, including castles, cathedrals, manor homes, and chapels, with photographs, floor plans, and images.
Richard III: A Study of Service by Rosemary Horrox. About the king's servants.
Fiction About Richard III
The Sunne in Splendour by Sharon Kay Penman. Novel about the life of Richard III. Even if you don't share Penman's view of Richard as a saintly innocent, this is an entertaining book and an excellent introduction to the historical figures of the era.
This Time by Joan Szechtman. Time-travel story in which England's King Richard III attempts to unravel the mysteries of the modern world and undo the damage done to his reputation through 500 years of history.
The Daughter of Time by Josephine Tey. Novel in which a 20th century detective investigates Richard III's alleged murder of the Princes in the Tower. Read my review of the book here .