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Article: The man who would be king Blair Worden praises this vivid Life of Perkin Warbeck, the Flemish boatman's son who staked a claim for Henry VII's throne
- Article from:
- The Sunday Telegraph London
- Article date:
- April 6, 2003
- Author:
CopyrightCopyright 2003 The Sunday Telegraph London. Provided by ProQuest LLC. (Hide copyright information)
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Perkin: A Story of Deception
by Ann Wroe
Jonathan Cape, pounds 20, 528 pp
pounds 18 ( pounds 1.99 p&p) 0870 155 7222
TO POSTERITY the reign of Henry VII, over the quarter of a century
that followed his victory at Bosworth in 1485, seems to mark the
transition from the medieval to the modern state. The chaos of the
Wars of the Roses was quelled; the baronage was tamed; the
government's finances and administration were sorted out; the
security of the Tudor succession was established.
We forget, however, the precariousness of Henry's survival. Fear,
famously the instrument of his supremacy, was secretly his affliction
too. Normally he is thought of as a ruler of cold and dull
efficiency. Among ...