1 comments about The Flight of the Earls.

1. this book was so amazing and done in such vivid detail that i could not do it justice in words. You have to read it yourself or else you are missing a great treat.john mccavitt is one of the best historian writers in a long time.

2 comments about Address Book for Germanic Genealogy 6th ed..

1. Now in an updated sixth edition, Address Book For Germanic Genealogy by genealogist Ernest Thode is an in-depth and superbly organized collection of informative and helpful documentation for aspiring genealogists seeking a greater knowledge or understanding of the resources available to them in researching their Germanic ancestry. Covering every imaginable location and available contact with the particular facilities listed, Address Book For Germanic Genealogy is also inclusive of a list of helpful phrases and questions in German for greater ease in accomplishing or pursuing the desired information. Address Book For Germanic Genealogy is among leading resources for assistance in genealogical research with its expansive, exclusive, and informative documentation of everything one might need to trace their Germanic heritage, and is very strongly recommended to everybody seeking a complete genealogical understanding and recording of their Germanic ancestors.



2. I received the book in a timely manner.
   
   All was fine.
   
   Marlene

No comments about The Parish Chest: A Study of the Records of Parochial Administration in England.

1 comments about The History of London in Maps.

1. One of the things that make maps so valuable is the way they communicate information about the times and the culture when the map was made that were totally unintentional by the mapmaker. Most of our culture is invisible to us. We live and move in it and the things we do, say, build, and leave behind just seem to us the way things are. And they are; for now. However, in a hundred years or even further into the future there will be aspects of our time that will seem absolutely foreign to our descendents and some things that will resonate with their own view of themselves.
   
   So it is with the wonderful maps in this book. London has long been one of the great cities in the world and its history goes back to Roman times and even earlier. In this book we start in mid-Tudor times. It is so fascinating to see how close to the river this great city was and how small it is compared to the monster city of today. We get to see other maps leading up to the Great Fire of 1666. There we see how much of the city was destroyed and the various proposals for rebuilding and what was actually built again.
   
   Not all of the maps are of the whole city, we see how certain key areas were designed and built. There are also interesting details of land use, in what order the countryside was swallowed into the city.
   
   There are also health study and social reform maps especially in the Victorian era. Transportation proposals and the birth of Trafalgar Square make for interesting reading, as well. A famous aerial view done from a balloon is also included and makes for very interesting viewing.
   
   There is such a wealth and variety that I cannot describe them all, but I consider this book a treasure. I have never lived in London, but visited it more than a dozen times and am familiar with many of the areas included in these maps and it is wonderful to learn more about the development of those areas.

No comments about Around Garforth (Archive Photographs: Images of England S.).

5 comments about Blood & Roses: The Paston Family in the Fifteenth Century.

1. 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.



2. I enjoyed this book very much. It is specifically about the family's history during the period of the War of the Roses, and this time really comes alive with all of its uncertainties and political instability. The book occasionaly gets mired in extensive detail about the property problems faced by the family - but certainly shows how much has changed in terms of security of land tenure and property rights since this period. It probably helps to have some initial knowledge of Plantagenet vs. York issues to get into the book, but as a layman myself, I was able to follow the bigger story, of deposed kings and usurpers fairly easily, and was thoroughly engrossed as well in the personality profiles of the kings, princes, peers, and queens depicted.



3. 
   This is a highly unusual book. I believe this is the sort of material that's usually buried in PhD theses and never reaches a general audience.
   
   Castor's exhaustive research shows as she reconstructs the history of the Paston family and it's attempts to climb the social ladder of the landed gentry. In 15th century England, there is no title insurance. You can lose your land to claims of better connected people who may be the progeny of previous owners, or may be just better connected. You can also lose it in a seige and hope that your connections are good enough to have a hearing in a court where you hope to get connected people on your side. You can also lose this property, and be imprisoned as well, if an ancestor of yours was "unfree" and therefore not able to own property.
   
   The Paston Family seems ill equipped to play this game. While the book does not deal with domestic problems, there are some unmistakable facts. William's other sons, who have better and firmer inheritances are in deep background (until one comes around to lay claim) leaving John, the semi-disinherited older son, to fend for himself. He's in this situation because his mother renounced his father's written will in favor of an alleged death bed testimony. This testimony works to the favor of the younger sons which essentially sets John up for failure. This is a mother who beats a daughter, whom she keeps in spinsterhood (withheld dowry), such that her head cracks.
   
   John's wife Margaret raises children and runs the contested manor, which becomes a war zone (she actually fights skirmishs and battles) while her husband networks in London. There is little detail what he does with his time, and he must have a lot of it on his hands. No wonder Margaret becomes cranky in the end. Unfortunately she takes it out on her two sons, both of whom, also set up for failure by parental decisions, risk their lives for this family enterprise.
   
   The tale is interesting for what it reveals of life at this time, but it is overly long in detail. Descriptions of battles, tangential players and some quotes from letters (some so convoluted they produce more confusion than enhancement) could well be eliminated in favor of a smoother analytical treatement. It isn't until p. 200+ that the author reveals what you seem to think, (but wonder if you've missed) that these people might be creating their own problems.
   
   Also hard to understand is the true fiscal plight of the family. They are always in financial straights, but are ordering clothing (lots of detail on items the modern reader cannot identify), shopping, entertaining and hiring soldiers and servants. They seem to be not only living beyond their means, but reaching it well beyond it as well.
   
   I like that the author describes the provenence of the letters at the end, and not the beginning. This is the time the reader can really appreciate their value.



4. 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.



5. This book reads like the basis for the endless court case at the center of "Bleak House". The Paston Family left an impressive collection of letters, but a good number of them seem to be related to long, dragged out court proceedings. There are aspects that I found informative, but the narrative is most lively in the sections where the Paston holdings pass from one generation to the next. I found John and Margaret Paston especially tedious. The scope of the changes in government during this time is breathtaking, and it is hard to understand how England remained even quasi-stable as a nation. The Pastons and their personal struggles seem a bit pale against such a back drop, but it does give you a good idea of how the citizenry had to push through and make do in such uncertain circumstances.

5 comments about The Romanovs 1818-1959.

1. This book on the Romanovs is a good description of the Romanov dynasty in its last century, concentrating primarily on the lives of Tsar Alexander II and his descendants. It does a good job covering the political and military events of the time, but is quite sketchy on the personal lives and characters of the last three Tsars and their relatives. This is a good book to have along with Charlotte Zeepvat's "Romanov Autumn", which covers the same time period but with a more personal slant.



2. Mr. Van Der Kiste has once again given the reader a history of a royal family that presents the members as real people and not just historical personages. He also mentions collateral members of the family, not just the czars. Many photos enhance the text. A very enjoyable read.



3. Van der Kiste is a prolific author on the subject of modern British and Continental royalty, and this is one of his better efforts. While the Romanovs had ruled imperial Russia since 1613, the male line died out in the mid-18th century. The succeeding Holstein-Gottorp dynasty (a branch of the Oldenburgs), in the person of Peter III, took the Romanov name and produced five more tsars before the Russian monarchy came to an end in 1918. Tsar Paul was idealistic and generous but also vindictive and paranoid, and ultimately was assassinated. Alexander I, a complex and contradictory figure with mystical leanings, was also the most powerful ruler on the Continent after the fall of Napoleon. Nicholas I was a repressive autocrat of limited intellectual ability and was succeeded by Alexander II, a despotic but soft-hearted reactionary, nevertheless emancipated Russia's serfs. He, too, was assassinated, which led his son, Alexander III, to tighten his control of the Russian state. And his son, Nicholas II, was totally incapable of meeting the demands of the job in an age of world war mixed with long-simmering revolution. Moreover, all the tsars in this period married German princesses, which did nothing to endear the ruling family to the Russian people during the Great War. The author does a good job of tracing the psychological threads and social and political environments that formed this disastrous family.



4. This novel focuses mainly on Tsar Alexander II, his children, and grandchildren. It also follows the lives of the children from Alexander II's second family with Catherine Dolgoruky. The novel reveals just how many colorful characters the were in the Romanov family besides Nicholas and Alexandra. In my opinion the book really doesn't go into as much depth when it comes to the section on Nicholas II than the ones on his father or grandfather and the last 2 chapters that are supposed to be for Nicholas seem to deal more with his uncle Paul Alexandrovich than with the emperor himself. That aspect of the book is actually kind of refreshing considering the deluge of information on Nicholas II, and by writing less about him may have the author's aim. The section on Alexander III, Nicholas' father, was very revealing seeing as how not much is written about him. The information on Alexander II's youngest child Catherine, by his second wife, was also equally revealing especially her life after the revolution. The book also throws in political information with the personal to create the prevailing moods of the different time periods.



5. This book, which could have been so beautiful, is a huge disappointment. It reads almost like a list rather than anything engrossing and lacks any feel for or sense of the real people behind the names. The description of Grand Duke Serge Alexandrovich, for example, is a huge generalization based on rumour and hearsay. This book is nothing like Charlotte Zeepvat's wonderful "Romanov Autumn" which goes deeply into the characters and personalities of the people she describes. Reading this I felt as though Mr. Van der Kiste was merely churning out a book about people for whom he had no respect or with whom he had no empathy at all.
   
   Most Beautiful Princess

No comments about London Stories: Personal Lives, Public Histories.

5 comments about Louis XI: The Universal Spider.

1. This is a terrific and highly readable biography of a fascinating and enigmatic ruler, set in a period of great political upheaval. Anyone interested in the details of "why" and "how" things happened - not merely "what" happened - will find this book immensely interesting.

   Kendall's style is gripping, but he tends to be a partisan for his subject. At times, his bias becomes a little annoying, particularly where more than one "spin" could be put on a certain course of action. The reader must be careful to make his own judgements in many places.

   That said, Kendall provides a wealth of quotes from contemporary sources, and his scholarship is unquestionable. This is a great book, covering a time and place that is too little addressed in most popular histories.




2. In LOUIS XI THE UNIVERSAL SPIDER, biographer-historian Paul Murray Kendall says the Burgundian chronicler Molinet called Louis "the universal spider" and the sobriquet unfortunately stuck. He says Louis was further demonized by 19th Century historians and writers who failed to do their homework. Louis XI was not so much spider as he was diplomat and peace-maker in an age when men looked suspiciously on such behaviour, and combat was viewed as the honorable and noble approach to settling disputes. Louis used his head and the end result was to bring the feudal era in France to a close and help usher in the modern world.

   Louis reckoned the ceaseless bickering and fighting of the nobles was destructive to the health of the countryside and the people of France. The common people of the towns and villages agreed with Louis as did the merchants and tradesmen. Louis is not remembered for winning any great battles. The major reason Louis was so successful in defeating his enemies was owing to his understanding of finance. He understood that those who fight must finance their wars and without funds, their access to armaments and mercenaries evaporates. The clever king also understood that when the countryside is destroyed an army that crawls on its belly cannot fight.

   Charles VII was the father of Louis XI, that same Dauphin whom Joan the Maid of Orleans managed to have crowned. The ungrateful Charles VII did nothing to save Joan once she had been captured by the English and the Duke of Burgundy, but the six-year old boy who became Louis XI never forgot the saint and he held a lifelong devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary after his encounter with her. When Louis was most pressed he prayed to the Virgin, and his monument to her at Clery still exists.

   The Duke of Burgundy during Charles VII's reign was Phillip the Good, and when Louis XI ran afoul of his father, he sought shelter with Duke Phillip who sheltered him. Thus Louis spent a good part of his young manhood in the company of his dour cousin Charles the Bold who became the Duke of Burgundy on his father's death. Charles also became Louis' life-long enemy and it was Charles' man who slandered Louis by referring to him as "the universal spider."

   Louis had one aspiration--to unite France in peace, and promote commerce and the general welfare of the people. Charles the Bold fancied himself another Julius Caesar--a warrior-king. Charles set about expanding his Duchy until Burgundy reached from the county of Burgundy near the Jura mountains to Flanders and Holland on the North Sea.

   Louis was no warrior-king. While other lords ran around in ermine and velvet and jousted at tournaments, Louis donned the hunter's clothes and spent most days in the rural areas chasing animals with his hunting dogs and comingling with the common folk. When he wasn't hunting animals Louis collected them for his vast menagerie.

   On most occasions Louis tried to make peace not war. He used his head, outwitted his enemies including the English king Edward IV, and at the end of his life left his heir Charles VIII a united France. Kendall obviously admired Louis and remarks that he was one of the most formidable human beings who ever lived.

   I have been reading the series Alison Weir has been writing on the English nobility, and enjoyed reading LOUIS XI not only because I want to know more about the history of France, but because in reading about Louis XI, I was able to understand why certain exchanges, conflicts, etc. regarding Edward IV were important. If you found Alison Weir's book on the WAR OF THE ROSES intriguing, you will appreciate this book. Kendall's writing is comparable to Weir's and he has based his writing on his original research--though he is quite dependent on Commynes as are most of Louis' biographers.

   I bought this book from Alibris, and I recommend you find a copy if you're interested in this period of history. I am puzzled as to why this book is out of print.




3. The nickname "Universal Spider" was not meant as a compliment to the French King Louis XI, whose supple mind and diplomatic skills allowed him consistently to outmanouever his enemies both foreign and domestic. Kendall puts an extremely entertaining writing style to good use in relating Louis' various showdowns with the French nobility, battles with Brittany, double-dealing with the rival English Yorkists and Lancasters, and blood-feud with the Burgundian Dukes - who so spectacularly reached the end-of-the-line during Louis' reign. Those parts dealing with Anglo-French diplomacy are particuarly interesting, given the author's other works on Richard III, Edward IV and Warwick the Kingmaker.



4. Louis XI is to be considered among the greatest kings of France, if not the greatest at all, because he set up the national French monarchy which was to last until Louis XVI. He created a powerful kingdom by subduing step by step the once unrulable feudal lords. And this he did mainly by the use of his cunning sagacious diplomacy rather than by the use of weapons. The "Universal Spider" actually employed the strategy of the spider, patience, diplomacy, cold blood, shrewdness and a calculating mind to win the realm from the clutches of the nobles and bound it forever to the Crown. When he succeeded to the throne in 1461 after the death of his father Charles VII, he found France in a state of turmoil. The proud and petulant lords of the Houses of Bourbon, Anjou, Armagnac, Brittany and, above all, the mighty Duke of Burgundy (whose posessions gathered not only the County and Duchy of Burgundy, but also Picardy, Artois, Flanders, Holland, Zealand, Brabant and Luxembourg) had joined in a so-called "League of the Public Weal" to overthrow him and regain their declining privileges. Before his dead, in 1483, he had crushed the nobility, their lands reverted to the Crown; he had got rid of the always threatening Charles the Rash, duke of Burgundy, and swallowed the whole Burgundian territories of France, and had avoided cunningly a second English invasion of France. By 1483 the king of France was the most powerful monarch in Europe and the richest. It was all possible due to the genius of Louis de Valois. The statesmanship of the "Universal Spider" made it possible. This books shows how, and it provides not only an accurate and very amusing lesson of the History of France, but also a valuable lesson in politics. Looks like very often the pen is mightier than the sword.



5. This biography is both well written and leaves you with a clear sense of the subject's personality. Almost the only comment on Louis XI I had read about before this biography was that he was clever and known as "the universal spider" for the webs he wove around people who opposed him.
   
   What I hadn't known was that he'd lead a life of such extremes of good and bad fortune and that he effectivley broke the fedual nobles and bought France into a stabilised central monarchy within in his reign. In some respects Louis was the most unkingly of Kings and its a shame his common touch was lost with subsequent monarchs.
   
   This is one of the best biographies I have read of a medieval monarch and it's well worth seeking out if you have any interest in the birth of the Renaissance and the end of Burgundy and the birth of France as we know it even today.
   
   Philip the Good: The Apogee of Burgundy (History of Valois Burgundy)
   
   Charles the Bold: The Last Valois Duke of Burgundy (History of Valois Burgundy)
   
   Joan of Arc: Her Story

5 comments about A History of London.

1. This book is not only written in an easy and laid-back fashion, but it is laid out in a way that is easy to navagate. It is broken down in to main secions of history (e.g. Mideval London) then further broken down into sections by topic (e.g. Society and Cutlure). This book covers every aspect of the city, from government to economics to housing to transportation. Sure I found some of the sections boring but I was able to skip over those sections of text without losing other valuable information about the city and its history.

   This was a very comprehensive book that I read with ease in less than a month. Don't expect grandiose details on any particular monarch, policy or era, for this is just an overview, and an overview of London at that. This is a great way to understand how the little Roman settlement of Lundun morphed into the vast metropolis we know today. A great beginning for further study on this topic. Highly recommended for armchair historians.




2. This books large size is simply due to its large subject. The City of London is a wonderful place that I have been fortunate to visit over a dozen times and plan to visit many more times.

   In the states we measure the history of buildings and cities in decades and MAYBE a century or two. In London they measure in centuries and maybe a millennium or two (or three).

   Mr. Inwood takes us through that history with lively prose and keeping the focus on the interesting and the informative without weighing us down with the kind of detail academics seem to love to inflict on themselves. No, this book reads like a book half its size because of the fun we have touring the development of the place and the inhabitants who have taken and left its glorious stage through the centuries.

   If you know London you will love this book and if you don't know London you will learn to love it through reading this book.




3. Stephen Inwood has put together perhaps the most complete single-volume history of London to date. While many historians focus on a particular London (and yes, there are many Londons -- literary London, political London, et al.), and Inwood is no exception in taking particular focus at different times, this book touches on all the facets, by concentrating largely on London's inhabitants, and, as they belong to different Londons, exploring their native Londons and the interactions between the differing Londons.

   Inwood from his childhood looked upon London as a 'remote and fascinating place'. His father as a London cab driver (as one finds, when living in or visiting London, often those who know the city best). Inwood infuses his memory of this fascination on every page of this 1100 page text, eliminating the remoteness by description and analysis that is excellent. As Inwood says, 'You can still walk the streets that Boswell and Dickens walked, and even, if you look carefully, see some of the buildings they saw.'

   Inwood, realising that many histories begin with the 'easy bits', tackled the problem of writing history from the beginning, with Londinium, and even before. 'The first known inhabitants of the Greater London aea were the late Ice Age (8000 BC) hunters whose flint tools and reindeer bones were found in Uxbridge in the 1980s. From there he traces the founding of Londinium through Boudicca's revolt to Flavian Londinium to its virtual abandonment. London again had a revival during Anglo-Saxon times, being rebuilt by Alfred the Great or his son, Edward the Elder.

   Edward the Confessor and his briefly tenured successor, Harold, helped intensify the significance of London by building, consecrating and then turning Westminster Abbey into a fundamental symbol of royal power -- the coronation at Westminster Abbey has remained a strong tradition for 900 years. London the city, however, had a love-hate relationship with royalty, and to this day the Lord Mayor has a ceremonial power to refuse the monarch entrance to the city, much in the way the door to the House of Commons is slammed in the face of Black Rod, the House of Lords representative sent to summon the Members to attend the proceedings in the house of peers.

   Inwood's sensitivity to issues grand and small is in evidence throughout, by attending to sweeping urban planning issues to taking up a discussion of the role of Gentlemen's Clubs, 'Those who could not gain access to the best dining rooms could enjoy many of the pleasures of London society (the exclusively masculine pleasures, at any event) by becoming a member of one of the West End clubs...'

   Inwood makes the observation that 'in the 1990s they could find England's most extreme social and economic contrasts within 5 miles of Parliament Square', and this is true on the whole, for the wealthy and the destitute both tend to flock to the urban scene. London has suffered by not having a central government, the only major city without such government, not that the GLC was effective, but that something needs to be done -- and perhaps the new mayoral initiative will bring some hope. London's 1993 GDP was about 110 billion GBP (180 billion USdollars), bigger than the GDP of Russia - 'a city with the capacity to generate wealth on such a scale does not need to endure overfilled railway carriages, understocked classrooms, decaying social services, underfunded libraries, neglected housing estates or families living in fire-trap bed-and-breakfast accommodation.'

   Inwood concludes with an early comment on London: 'The city is delightful indeed, when it has a good governor,' penned by William Fitzstephen in 1173. Of course, today's problems are not unique even to London, as this history demonstrates admirably.

   This is a history that is well worth the investment of the time it takes to read.




4. Couldn't put this book down. Inwood writes as all professors should lecture. Very easy to follow, never boring.



5. If your interests lie in how many tons of wheat England exported in 1532, this is the book for you. If you looking for a flowing social history of London with interesting side-stories and anecdotes (e.g. "fun reading"), stay away from this borefest.