Oh my goodness, I wish I had words to describe the awesome that is this book. I am a huge lover of this time period, and in all of my research, I have yet to find books on Cecily that do her justice. Until now. The research put into this book, along with the writing and ease of readability...not to mention the care given to Cecily's memory...make this my now most recommended book on all things Cecily Neville.

I received this book free via Net Galley for an honest review. This is a well researched book that goes through the life of Cecily Neville. You can tell that the author used various sources of records to write this book. In cases where sources conflicted each other, he showed the discrepancies. If you are interested in learning more about the mother of Edward IV and Richard III, then I recommend this book. Please note that this is not a story, but a well researched account of Cecily Neville’s life.

Cecily Neville

Mother of Richard III

by Dr John Ashdown-Hill

Pen & Sword

Pen and Sword History

Biographies & Memoirs , History

Pub Date 30 Apr 2018

I am reviewing a copy of Cecily Neville Mother of Richard III through Pen and Sword and Netgalley:

Though no one can be certain Cecily Neville was believed to have been born on May.3 1415 at Ruby Castle. It is believed too that she was the youngest of the twenty two known children of Ralph Neville who was the first Earl of Westmorland.

It is said that Cecily gave birth to twelve children but not all of them survived!

Richard is believed to have been born in February or March of 1441/2

It is rumored that Cecily has been known as the Rose of Raby because of how beautiful she was as well as her birth at Raby Castle, another nickname was said to have been Proud Cis because she was said to have been vain as well as having a fiery temper, but that is only speculation. Her life is in-fact shrouded in mystery.

It is known that Cecily was the Matriarch of the York dynasty. She lived through a tumultuous time and lived to see the birth of the future king Henry VIII. She saw the house of York defeat their Lancastrian cousins to watching the defeat of her own son Richard III, at the battle of Bosworth, as well as seeing one of her own granddaughters become Henry VIII Queen Consort!

I give Cecily Neville five out of five stars!

Happy Reading!

This book is different to the usual historical fiction and historical on which I have read this is because I normally start when war of the roses has already started or the Tudor period and above - so it was quiet fascinating to read what happened before and the pre-text for the whole historical period.
The book went into a lot of detail about how Cecily's son Edward became king and the overall context surrounding his birth and his siblings births - I thought the beginning of the book talking about her birth, childhood and children was interesting along with married life in England, France and Ireland - however after the chapter of Edward's first reign it felt it became more about him rather than Cecily - and this made it quite dull as I know most things about his reign - and thats when in my eyes the author lost focus on Cecily - which really disappointed me to be honest.
I did find out more about Cecily and war of the roses and pre war of the roses which was interesting and felt I learned a whole lot more pre-text - and I would recommend history geeks like myself to read this as it is a fascinating read a fantastic pre war of roses and quick overview of war of roses for a new beginner into that historical period overall a good read
Thankyou to the author and publisher for letting me read this copy in advance.