Blood and Roses: One Family's Struggle and Triumph During the Tumultuous Wars of the Roses

Very interesting book. Almost unbelievable how many of these Paston letters survived.

I was pleasantly surprised, recently, by Helen Castor's "Blood and Roses". I had expected another urbane, boring, and dusty history for England's most turbulent civil war- the War of the Roses. Instead, Castor presents a 15th century English family's struggle for peerage, identity, and future during England's most tumultuous pre Commonwealth period. This remarkable 426-page 2006 paperback is destined to become a War of the Roses classic. The story is well documented (with 23 pages of endnotes, an extensive select bibliography, and a dozen photos). Clearly saying that their papers have a "unique place in the history of medieval England", Castor narrates from the Paston family's letters, their realty and legal contracts, and other original documents. In 1400, the lowborn Paston family begins to struggle for land ownership, for money, for gentry status, and for political presence. Their rise is plagued with other families' jealousies, aristocratic theft, familial betrayal, and royal expectation, all during various would-be governments' dash to power. Through the years the Pastons play on every side. By the middle 1700s the family has achieved viscount status, castles, manor houses, and positions in the king's personal staff. Theirs is a dramatic tale worthy of history's notice and analysis. The Paston narrative seems a microcosm for the turbulent times in which they lived, worked, plotted, loved, fought, and died. What finally happens with the Pastons? Read "Blood and Roses" and find out. Even though it seems long at first glance, I read Castor in a short time. Her novel-like writing style kept me in the story. I couldn't put it down! This book is a must read for York versus Lancaster buffs, medieval English history enthusiasts, and Middle Ages genealogists. Get your copy soon.

Now I understand the Mediaeval belief in a wheel of fortune. This book really does portray middle class life in the fifteenth century with a realism rarely encountered. It is not easy reading but there is plenty of meat! I had never really understood before how the ups & downs of the nobility during a tumultous period affected the ordinary middle class. Now it is much clearer. One mystery remained for me. How could a son who apparently spent most of his life in the law courts suddenly be asked to join Edward 1V in a jousting tournament at Eltham? I can not imagine many of our current lawyers accepting such a challenge. An excellent book.

I can't praise this book too highly. On one level, it is the story of a tumultuous period in late mediaeval (15th century)England (The Wars of the Roses). On another level, it is the detailed story of the rise of the Paston family from a bondsman farmer (tied to the land) to gentry who could marry into the aristocracy. The interplay of these two brings alive the former. Along the way, Helen Castor tells the more circumscribed story with numerous asides explaining the significance of things we would find difficult to relate to today (e.g., the vaguaries of legal rights to land, or the severe economic consequences of selling a forest to pay debt), but which were so important at the time. If you have any interest in history at all (particularly English late mediaeval, though not, by any means, restricted to that) do read this book. Helen Castor writes beautifully and brings the period alive. This is anything but "dry-as-dust" history - it will carry you along like the best of Dumas, even though it is non-fiction. Brava Helen; I can't wait for the next.

Excellent, very readable account of family life in the late 1400's, set against tumultuous times of civil war. Although this is referenced history, it reads like a novel! The story of the Pastons is illuminated from their unique letters that fortunately, were not lost to history, as so many contemporary documents. Their rise to the upper middle class, over 3 generations, from peasant origins seems remarkable, for the time and place! The title was taken from a historical quote about the time that was filled with the stench of "blood and roses"

How little people change! In a world of chicanery and deviousness with a civil war raging, how does a family fend off enemies and progress in wealth and status? Castor uses the private correspondence of the Paston family to weave a fascinating story of a family's struggles and survival during the War of the Roses. Battles, beheadings, political mayhem, worrying about the son in London who seems to be a spendthrift dilettante and the daughter sleeping with an employee when she should be aspiring to at least a knight if not a duke. It's all here along with whether it is better to rescue your wife trapped in the manor surrounded by men with crossbows, or let nature take its course!