The Wars of the Roses: The Fall of the Plantagenets and the Rise of the Tudors Paperback – Illustrated, October 6, 2015

In few histories can one see the truth that `to the victors, belongs the history' in such clarity as Jones reveals. Jones has winnowed the knowable facts from triumphalist biased history. The "War of the Roses" sounds like a romantic event except it was invented by a 19th century revisionist. You'll quickly see that there's nothing romantic here.The book begins with the obscure story of Plantagenet extinction. It's an irony that a Tudor Henry VIII would deliver a grizzly 10 whack beheading to a demographic `ancient' and last of the Plantagenet blood royal in 1541 ... 100 years after York victory at Bosworth Field. The Plantagenet dynasty so exits corporeal history in the person of Henry VIII's great-great-grandaunt.This is the story of a mighty family tree gone to war as notional `roses'. Plantagenet House Lancaster and House York simply annihilated themselves. Circumstances and peculiarity left an outsider standing. A 'Tudur' from Wales of low noble origin emerges as king. It's the time of the Tudors and the end of dynasty.Jones telling is rooted in the personalities of the kings, queens, and princes amped up by a supporting cast of doubly rough counts, dukes and bishops. The telling is necessarily complex. The story is as bizarre, pivotal and bloody as any fiction. As the publisher advance material correctly claims, `The Game of Thrones' fiction is no match.Ultimately, this is a story for a modern reader to consider `kingship' from a time not so distant. A monarchs lapse of common sense tears through a king's powerful subjects, variously assembled in cabals of self-interest who are willing and able to field formidable forces to challenge the person of the king and exterminate bloodlines. Modern warfare among cartel kingpins is no match in wrath and scale. Consider the mutilated remains of the last Plantagenet king, Richard III, buried shallow, nameless and long forgotten beneath public parking ... only discovered in 2013 and 550 years after his death in a royal history absorbed society. Perhaps there's still the chance of finding Jimmy Hoffa.Discussions with friends who have read both `The Plantagenet's' and `War of the Roses' reveals a split opinion. It's a matter of history reader preference. Do you like high fidelity history (a lot of names, personalities, interactions, dates and places) or narrative entertainment? This is hi-fi history on a grand scale. Jones repeatedly sends the history buff to wiki to explore for more.

I loved the Plantagenet's, the first book in this series. Dan Jones has a novelist's sense of pacing and story telling - his history can be pretty biased though. The War of the Roses was a page turner that kept me up at night reading. I'm not sure that if I wasn't already familiar with the storyline - or would that be history line - that I would have been able to follow the labyrinth list of characters and battles. An explanation of who the Beauforts were and why they were important would have been helpful to a casual reader.Being from the US, the history Dan Jones relates is not second nature to me. The War of the Roses is not something we learn in school here. I often felt as though he was writing to a very knowledgeable audience - those in the UK who would have learned this history in school. It's part of their historical DNA so explaining the Beaufort history wouldn't have been necessary to those in the UK. But for those of us who weren't raised on John of Gaunt's illegitimate - later legitimate - children, I think most people would be confused as Jones never does explain this really important connection.But with that said, the book had an interesting premise that he carried through the book beautifully. Dan Jones is an excellent writer who makes medieval history come alive,

Very informative & everything I wanted to know about the War of the Roses. Easy to follow and held my interest throughout.

This is the 4th Dan Jones book I've read and he hasn't disappointed. After finishing The Plantagenets I went on with this one. The stories of the the Plantagenets, the Lancasters, the Yorks and the Tudors are already interesting and remarkable in themselves, but Jones' storytelling somehow ups the ante. I highly recommend this book, but I suggest reading The Plantagenets first.And to those reading this on a Kindle I suggest having a family tree from Edward III down to Henry VII next to you as reference. The genealogy figure in the Kindle version is so small to read. And sometimes you have look up the how a character is related to another like how Richard duke of York or Margaret Beaufort are direct descendants of Edward III etc.