The Perfect Prince: The Mystery of Perkin Warbeck and His Quest for the Throne of England

by Ann Wroe

Book Overview

The story of Perkin Warbeck is one of the most compelling mysteries of English history. A young man suddenly emerged claiming to be Richard of York, the younger of the Princes in the Tower. As such,... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1400060338
• ISBN13: 9781400060337
• Release Date: October 2003
• Publisher: Random House (NY)
• Length: 610 Pages
• Weight: 2.25 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.9" x 6.4" x 9.6"

Customer Reviews

No Historical Romance or Mystery Fiction ...

... could possibly have held my avid attention through 500 packed pages as closely as this "Perfect Prince"! Fair warning, though! It's not casual reading. It's a book of speculative scholarship, in which the reader will need to distinguish between research and intuition. It's decidedly NOT a mere account of events as 'facts'. The events it examines were relatively minor in the course of the reigns of Henry VII in England, Maximilian in Austria, and Ferdinand and Isabella in Spain. A young man, the Prince of the title, asserted that he was the younger son of King Edward IV, supposed to have been murdered by Richard III (remember your Shakespeare?), and thus the legitimate heir to the throne 'falsely' occupied by Henry of Tudor. In short, the young man was a "Yorkist Pretender", one of several out of the many Young Pretenders who have stirred up turmoil in British history. This young man, however, came closer to success than most, receiving 'recognition' from Irish, Scottish, and Flemish supporters. Eventually, the young man attempted three serious invasions, all quashed easily. He was captured, kept prisoner in a bizarre fashion, escaped twice, and eventually was executed. As I said, however, Ann Wroe's "The Perfect Prince" is not a mere history of doubtful events. It's a "history of mentalities" in the most modern, intellectual, 'French' style. Lovers of old-fashioned narrative history, take care! You may find this book a challenge to your presuppositions about the goals and the tools of history. Wroe draws upon cultural materials -- art and iconography, religious tracts and scurrilous ballads, literary accounts of the drama and fiscal accounts of payments for stabling of horses -- to probe the perception, the meaning, of those doubtful events for the people who observed or participated in them. In other words, Wroe aims to recreate the "World View" of Europeans circa 1490. As I read her book, she's come closer to that goal than any other historian I know. And I know the period fairly well, from a perspective of involvement in it. No, I'm not 500 years old, although at times I feel it! My involvement is through the music of the times, particularly the polyphony of the great Flemish composers Obrecht and Desprez. Music isn't mentioned much in Wroe's book, but the art of Bruges and Ghent figure importantly. I've stared at that art. I've walked those streets. I KNOW that people of 1490 viewed "truth and deception" - Wroe's subtitle- as well as Love and Faith, in ways that were fundamentally different from ours today. It's the insights into their mentalities which make this challenging book worth the effort to read. There is a romance in the book, nonetheless. The young Yorkist pretender is given a political bride, the most beautiful maiden in Scotland and the daughter of a mighty Earl, and the two seem actually to have fallen in Love. Theirs is as tragic a love story as any in literature. I hereby claim the movie rights! There is also a Mystery

A Fascinating Historical Mystery

I really enjoyed The Perfect Prince for several reasons. First, it covers a fascinating period of English and European history, the late 1400s when the Europeans were beginning to stretch beyond their own borders into other continents like Africa and the Americas. At the same time the European nation states were in the final stages of coalescence, so that terms like "England" and "France" were beginning to have more than just rough geographical meanings. Secondly, I liked this book for its detailed coverage of the mystery of the vanished Princes and whether or not Perkin Warbeck was actually Richard, Duke of York. This is one of the oldest European historical mysteries, but it is just as intriguing as more modern conundrums, such as what happened to the Dauphin in 1793 or to two of the last Tsar's children in 1918. Thirdly, this book is beautifully written, with fine psychological insights into Perkin himself, King Henry VII, Margaret of Burgundy, and numerous others who tend to be considered mere names in dry as dust annals. So I recommend this book to students of royal and/or English history and to anyone who enjoys a fine, well told tale of mystery and intrigue.

a conspiracy of dunces, indeed

I was so bemused by the vigorous attacks here, and such a fan of Pontius Pilate, that I put The Perfect Prince at the head of my reading list, jumping over a few long-waiting candidates, just to see what the problem was. In a word, I haven't the vaguest.I didn't find the book difficult to follow at all, and it rewards readers' attention with a wealth of fascinating detail that matches the drama of the story.I don't care to speculate as to whether the intense hostility is motivated by short attention spans or the pique that some people inevitably display when a book they don't care for is praised, but I found Prince to be a rare, cherishable pleasure.

Worth lugging

With respect to the above gentleman from Pennsylvania, I believe it is, I cannot quite credit that we read the same book. To my mind, Perkin is a majestic work of investigative, scholarly history. Wroe writes with verve and elegance about the closing of the medieval period and the opening out of the new world; it is no coincidence we find Perkin first of all in Portugal, among the adventurers and chancers who were to characterise his ascent. The mystery of Perkin naturally lends itself to speculation and Wroe lets the reader draw his or her own conclusions. I am still making up my own mind as to his identity (if not to his character). Perhaps the best compliment I can pay the book is that, eager to unravel the mystery, I lugged the hefty hardback version of it around Afghanistan through the autumn. The battered survivor (the tome that is) is still doing the rounds in Kabul, where intelligent reading is much in demand.