The Yorkist Age Daily Life During the Wars of the Roses

This first full-length study of English society In the fifteenth century draws upon contemporary narratives of travelers, the Paston Letters and many less widely known collections of correspondence, observations of French and Italian diplomats, town records, ecclesiastical reports, the literature of the age, chronicles, household and estate accounts, Chancery proceedings, and other revealing sources in order to recreate the substance and flavor of life at that time. Contrary to Shakespeare and popular belief, the Wars of the Roses had comparatively little effect upon the lives of the people as a whole and represented a recovery from, rather than a descent into, anarchy.--From publisher description.