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    The Secret Queen: Eleanor Talbot, The Woman who put Richard III on the Throne
    Unavailable
    The Secret Queen: Eleanor Talbot, The Woman who put Richard III on the Throne
    Unavailable
    The Secret Queen: Eleanor Talbot, The Woman who put Richard III on the Throne
    Ebook469 pages5 hours

    The Secret Queen: Eleanor Talbot, The Woman who put Richard III on the Throne

    By John Ashdown-Hill

    3.5/5

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    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this ebook

    When Edward IV died in 1483, the Yorkist succession was called into question by doubts about the legitimacy of his sons (the ‘Princes in the Tower’). The crown therefore passed to Edward IV's undoubtedly legitimate younger brother, Richard, Duke of Gloucester. But Richard, too, found himself entangled in the web of uncertainly, since those who believed in the legitimacy of Edward IV’s children viewed Richard III’s own accession with suspicion.

    From the day that Edward IV married Eleanor, or pretended to do so, the House of York, previously so secure in its bloodline, confronted a contentious and uncertain future. John Ashdown-Hill argues that Eleanor Talbot was married to Edward IV, and that therefore Edward’s subsequent union with Elizabeth Widville was bigamous, making her children illegitimate.

    In his quest to reveal the truth about Eleanor, he also uncovers fascinating new evidence that sheds fresh light on one of the greatest historical mysteries of all time – the identity of the ‘bones in the urn’ in Westminster Abbey, believed for centuries to be the remains of the ‘Princes in the Tower’.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherThe History Press
    Release dateAug 26, 2011
    ISBN9780752468952
    Unavailable
    The Secret Queen: Eleanor Talbot, The Woman who put Richard III on the Throne

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    Reviews for The Secret Queen

    3.5/5

    9 ratings1 review

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    • 2/5
      I was excited to find this book, since I read Mr. Ashdown-Hill's book about Richard III's last days and that was informative and gave new insights into Richard. This book, however, read more like the first chapter of the Gospel of Mark - one geneology after another, accounts of property and who married whom, who fought for York and who fought for Lancaster. Granted, there is little known about Eleanor Butler. The author stretched out data as far as he could to bring the woman who was married to Edward IV (by the traditions and laws of medieval England) before he married Elizabeth Wydevill Grey - a marriage that was bigamous (by the traditions and laws of medieval England). Mr. Ashdown-Hill does offer explanations of why Edward's relationship with Eleanor was bigamous and how it dropped the crown in his younger brother Richard's lap, but the book was so very, very, dull. I would have had a better time reading the extant documents that gave the author the facts and basis for his work - in their original middle English.