Historians have researched extensively the motives and fortunes of kings, nobles, and gentlemen in the Wars of the Roses, that bewildering sequence of rebellions fought between 1455 and 1485. The shadows cast by the awesome puppet masters of the Wars, like Richard of York, Warwick the Kingmaker, or Richard III, add to the mist which swirls around the mass of participants. What sort of people were the soldiers? Why did they repeatedly buckle and saddle up for combat? What hopes and fears kept them awake, lying under the stars?
Anthony Goodman was, until his recent retirement, Professor of Medieval History at the University of Edinburgh. His other books include John of Gaunt, Richard II: The Art of Kingship, War and Border Societie in the Middle Ages, The Wars of the Roses: Military Activity and English Society, 1452-97, and History of England from Edward II to James I.