A.J. Pollard

'Edward was a man of considerable charm, who perhaps relied too much upon that charm to keep tensions within his entourage at bay' In 1461 Edward earl of March, a handsome, charismatic eighteen-year old, usurped the English throne during the first and most fierce of the Wars of the Roses. The years that followed witnessed a period that has been described as a golden age. Yet, argues A. J. Pollard, Edward was a man of limited vision, who squandered his talents and failed to secure his own dynasty.

A.J Pollard takes us back to the earliest surviving stories of Robin Hood, the stories, tales and ballads of the fifteenth century and he re-examines the story of this fascinating figure. Setting out the economic, social and political context of the time, Pollard illuminates the legend of this yeoman hero and champion of justice as never before.Imagining Robin Hood examines:* what a ‘yeoman’ was, and what it meant to a fifteenth-century Englishman* Was Robin Hood hunted as an outlaw, or respected as an officially appointed forest ranger?* Why do we ignore the fact that this celebrated hero led a life of crime?* Did he actually steal from the rich and give to the poor?Answering these questions, the book looks at how Robin Hood was ‘all things to all men’ since he first appeared; speaking to the gentry, the peasants and all those in between. The story of the freedom-loving outlaw tells us much about the English nation, but tracing back to the first stories reveals even more about the society in which the legend arose.An enthralling read for all historians and general readers of this fascinating subject.

Richard III has divided opinion for over 500 years. Traditionally, he has been perceived as a villain, a bloody tyrant and the monstrous murderer of his innocent nephews. To others he was and remains a wronged victim who did his best for kingdom and family; a noble prince and enlightened statesman tragically slain.Richard III and the Princes in the Tower explores the story of Richard III and the tales that have been woven around the historic events, and discusses his life and reign and the disappearance of the Princes in the Tower. It also assesses the original sources upon which much of the history is based. A number of picture essays explore particular aspects of Richard III’s life and reign: his birth sign of Scorpio, historical paintings, the symbolism of pigs and boars, Richard’s saints, his books, the Princes, and cartoons and caricatures. This classic work is one that no enthusiast should be without.

Elizabeth Montagu, the lady of the manor in 1775, described Eryholme as a `perfect paradise’. Today, though but three miles south of Darlington as the crow flies, it is a small and secluded community untouched by modern industry and urban development: `a haven of peace’. Yet it has had an eventful history. Sacked by Normans in 1069 and Scots in 1319; ravaged by famine and plague in the fourteenth century and almost abandoned in the fifteenth, Eryholme was involved in rebellion in 1569 and divided by civil war in 1642. Life became more tranquil in the eighteenth century when it became a cradle of the agricultural revolution, famed for its cattle breeding. Until then, a main branch of the Great North Road, which forded the Tees to Neasham, passed through. After the building of the turnpike from York to Durham, the village was bypassed and gradually became the `rural dot’ it is today. The book tells the story of the landowners, the villagers, their changing fortunes, their religion and their engagement with the wider world over almost thirty generations.

Henry V is the best-known military hero in English history: better known than Marlborough or Wellington, or his grandfather, Edward III. He enjoyed more success against the French than any of them, coming tantalisingly close to conquering that vast country and imposing an English dynasty; this in a reign of just nine years, in only seven of which he was at war. Even before he died the heroic myth, later enshrined by Shakespeare, was being created. His victories have become the touchstone of English nationalism, English militarism and English imperialism. For good or ill, Henry V now signifies the one-time ‘Greatness of England’. He was a military genius, yet his megalomania was not always in the best interests of his own kingdom, let alone the people of France who suffered at his hands. Behind the carefully constructed nationalist myth was a cold, calculating, ruthless ruler who, before his early death, revealed ominous tyrannical tendencies.

A series of fifteenth-century texts is revisited to uncover a different story of Sherwood Forest in this new look at the legendary figure of Robin Hood and his real-life career, lineage, and exploits.

Richard is well known as the most vilified of English kings, we know he had many enemies - indeed they sowed the seeds of the Richard black legend - but what about his many allies in his stronghold of power in Northern England?

This is the first modern scholarly study of north-eastern England during the Wars of the Roses. For a fleeting period in the late fifteenth century, the North dominated England: it was both the adopted home and the power base of Richard III. But this is more than simply an account of the rise and fall of the last Plantagenet as the Lord of the North. A. J. Pollard analyses regional politics and the interrelationship between province and centre from the beginning of the Neville-Percy feud in the 1450s to the establishment of Tudor authority by 1500. Themes explored include Anglo-Scottish relations, local government, the structure of landed society, the wealth, power, and the outlook of lords and gentry, and the economy of the region. Dr Pollard sets political history in the context of the period, and paints a detailed portrait of lay society, based on intensive research among local records. He shows that, contrary to some recent views, the North-East was in certain significant respects more feudal, more conservative and, by the early sixteenth century, poorer than the South-East of England.