Edward IV & Elizabeth Woodville by Amy Licence - Book Review.

Hello! So today's video is a book review of Edward IV and Elizabeth Woodville, A True Romance by Amy License and as usual if you're interested in this book after listening to my review the link for it will be down in the description bar below and it'll take you straight to the book depository. I was very kindly offered this book from the publishers which is Amberley. I snapped them up at the chance to have this. I heard about it before it was released and I wanted to read this for a couple of reasons. One, Elizabeth Woodville. Because I'm such a lover of Anne Boleyn it's kind of natural that I wanted to learn more about Elizabeth Woodville because Anne Boleyn was very intrigued by Elizabeth Woodville. They both had some sort of similarities. Elizabeth Woodville was the daughter of a knight, at times she was unpopular with the public and she was also associated with witchcraft. So Anne Boleyn saw some similarities between her and Elizabeth Woodville and really kind of tried to make her reign as successful as Henry VIII's grandmother Elizabeth Woodville. I also wanted to read it for Edward IV because I was watching a documentary I think it was on Channel 5 and I think it was called Britain's Crown. It was with Dan Snow and there was one episode that he did and it was on Edward IV and my eyes were glued to the TV and I'm not really the biggest TV person anyway but I absolutely loved it. I thought it was fascinating and I wanted to learn more. So when I saw this book it went straight onto my wish list and as soon as I received it I started reading it straight away. So this book starts with a fantastic introduction which is talking about Edward IV and how we've kind of forgotten him through history and I was thinking about this and I was thinking back to my school years and I was thinking we didn't actually study Edward IV at school you know being British we study a lot of British history but we didn't study Edward IV or Elizabeth Woodville for that matter actually and I was thinking why on earth after reading this I was I have no idea why. This was a king who was exiled twice, he signed the death warrant for his own brother, he murdered a king in the tower you know to name a few you know you've got quite a quite a reign behind him and I was thinking why on earth has he been forgotten through history so I was really intrigued and then the book kind of starts with them both separately. Edward IV and his life growing up and Elizabeth Woodville and her life growing up and then how they come to kind of meet in the middle and then their life as a pair. The main body of this book is talking to us about their life as a couple. This isn't a book about Edward IV going off being you know that medieval warrior and going and fighting all the battles while Elizabeth Woodville is at home with about 10,000 children, it's not like that at all. This is a book that's explaining you know a medieval king that's been forgotten but was an amazing king and talking about his relationship with his wife the mother of his children and to be honest I think that's what this book does really well it opens up kind of stigmas that we have about medieval kings. I think the limelight for medieval kings probably sits best with Richard III at the moment unfortunately and I think it should actually sit with Edward IV he was a fantastic king you know he was tall he was six foot three and a half inches he had brown hair he was really good looking when he came to the throne he was really young and he chose Elizabeth to be his bride. A lot of people didn't understand why but eventually people came around to supporting her and she was a beautiful woman she was intelligent she was however submissive and she had such great poise and dignity in regards to being a queen and for me this book has really shown me that I need to read more and learn more about these pair and you know history could have been so much different. I mean these two were the parents of the princes in the tower imagine if they'd survived imagine what dynasty we would have carried on then and it's really nice actually to have a book that I'm learning everything from I mean a lot of non-fiction books I mean I do read a lot but a lot of them I'm reading to get that historian's ideas and opinions and theories rather than actually learning the facts but in here I learned so much I only knew the bare kind of skeleton and the bare backbones of this couple but now I know so much I know about their relationship I didn't even think it was kind of like a lovey relationship I thought it was more a relationship that worked because he needed a wife and a queen he needed someone to provide male heirs but it's so much more than that and that's what this book has shown me. I love the use of primary evidence because you guys know what I'm like for primary source evidence I like lots of it and there's loads of bags of it in here as well what I really like is the nitty-gritty things and how Amy License writes it actually reminds me of one of my lecturers I had at university I had a lecturer and they used to kind of lay out really minute little details such as what the weather was doing and things like that and that reminds me of Amy License because she does the same she does the weather as well if it's outside but she does little things from the treasury about how much his his gown cost that day or something like that or how much he spent on a present for Elizabeth you know something minute and petty but actually it's really interesting and it tells us quite a lot I think we think of you know the first kind of Tudor royal the first sorry royal family to go kind of all out and look like a proper royal family is probably the Tudors because they look really grand and lavish but actually it's Edward IV and Elizabeth Woodville I mean she was a bit more plain and subdued but he went to town because he wanted to get away from what his um kind of rival uh for the throne Henry VI who was still knocking about what he looked like because he was a bit plain and dowdy whereas Edward IV was like yeah let's go for it and it was really interesting to see that throughout because she put those details in and it was lovely and it it just gave that bit excitement to it it felt like I don't know whether she is a lecturer or not but it did feel a bit like um a really interesting and engaging lecture not a boring one at all just some I just I was so full of knowledge and you know sometimes you read non-fiction and you can only read a certain amount of pages and you have to put it down it was not like that at all I could carry on reading it and I read it in about three sittings no joke I thought it was absolutely fantastic and I'm now going to go and find out more about these amazing couple because they're fantastic so I can't recommend it enough Edward IV and Elizabeth Woodville it was it was a really good read and I'm definitely going to read more of Amy Licence's work and definitely read more about medieval kings of England so that's my review of Edward IV and Elizabeth Woodville a true romance by Amy Licence I want to know in the comments section if you've read it if you have what do you think of it if you haven't read it are you gonna go and try and get your hands on a copy and if you are what are you most excited about learning about this couple their romance and their family unit please hit the subscribe button down below for more videos from me about books and vintage and history so take care everybody and I shall see you soon for the next video bye