The Sunne in Splendour

(Paperback)

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Description

Richard, last-born son of the Duke of York, was seven months short of his nineteenth birthday when he bloodied himself at the battles of Barnet and Tewkesbury, earning his legendary reputation as a battle commander and ending the Lancastrian line of succession. But Richard was far more than a warrior schooled in combat. He was also a devoted brother, an ardent suitor, a patron of the arts, an indulgent father, a generous friend. Above all, he was a man of fierce loyalties, great courage and firm principles, who was ill at ease among the intrigues of Edward's court. The very codes Richard lived by ultimately betrayed him. But he was betrayed by history too. Leaving no heir, his reputation was at the mercy of his successor, and Henry Tudor had too much at stake to risk mercy. Thus was born the myth of the man who would stop at nothing to gain the throne. Filled with the sights and sounds of battle, the customs and love of daily life, the rigours and dangers of Court politics and the touching concerns of very real men and women, The Sunne in Splendour is a richly coloured tapestry of medieval England.

Reviews

A painstakingly drawn picture of royal medieval England from bedchamber to battleground * Los Angeles Times Book Review *
The reader is left with the haunting sensation that perhaps the good a man does can live after him - especially in the hands of a dedicated historian * San Diego Union *
Those who know Richard III from Shakespeare will find that Sharon Kay Penman presents a contrasting view of the English monarch . . . He's an altogether nice man, a romantic hero as suitable to our late twentieth-century standards . . . As he was to those of medieval England . . . There is a vengeful quality to her insistence that is appealing; it makes for a good story * New York Times Book Review *
Penman's novel, rich in detail and research, attempts to set the record straight . . . It is an uncommonly fine novel, one that brings a far-off time to brilliant life * Chattanooga Daily Times *

Author Bio

Sharon Kay Penman is the author of seven other historical novels and four medieval mysteries set during the reign of Eleanor of Aquitaine. She lives in Mays Landing, New Jersey, and her most recent book is Lionheart, beginning the story of Richard I and the Crusades.