The period of English history commonly known as the Wars of the Roses continues to be a focus of academic research and the setting for a rich tradition of historical fiction. The reasons for this fascination are well known and need not be recounted here, but at the heart of the often-disputed understanding of what occurred and why lies the surviving evidence, chiefly in the form of government and private records, letters, and chronicles. The Contemporary English Chronicles of the Wars of the Roses contains eight of the most important chronicles for this period covering the start of the outbreak of fighting in the 1450s, until the apparent (to contemporaries) end of the conflict with the second reign of Edward IV (1471–1483). The chronicles included (in the order they are presented in this volume) are The Continuation of Gregory's Chronicle, The First Battle of St Albans, Howard's Chronicle (previously known as Hearne's fragment), Warksworth's Chronicle, The Siege of Bamburgh Castle, The Chronicle of the Rebellion in Lincolnshire, The Manner and Guiding of the Earl of Warwick, and The History of the Arrival of King Edward IV. The editorial decision not to include chronicles covering the resumption of conflict upon Edward IV's death in 1483 does mean that not all of the generally accepted chronology is addressed in this volume. That said, modern translations of later chronicles are available, and even with no agreement of the end of the conflict, addressing most of the fifteenth century would arguably be beyond the scope of a single volume.

The structure of the work follows a conventional format starting with a detailed introduction of each of the sources (1–51), the chronicles themselves (52–191), explanatory notes (193–338), textual notes (339–342), and a general bibliography. In the highly useful introduction, Dan Embree and M. Teresa Tavormina—who make clear that they are literary scholars and not political historians—provide a detailed analysis of each source, including which version is included, changes from previously published editions, and discussions, where relevant, regarding authorship. The latter point is particularly apposite to what has previously been known as Hearne's fragment, which Embree and Tavormina have renamed “Howard's Chronicle” based on recent research—and also their belief—that it was either written or dictated by Thomas Howard, second Duke of Norfolk.

Given that all eight chronicles have been previously published, a relevant question is in which ways the versions contained in this volume differ. Embree and Tavormina make this clear, explaining that in editing all chronicles, a number of minor errors or omissions from the eighteenth- and nineteenth-century publications have been corrected. But the main benefit that sets it apart from most earlier publications is the highly useful and detailed explanatory notes, which will be of particular use to students unfamiliar with the Middle English in which most of the chronicles were composed and here presented. Embree and Tavormina are to be commended for their obvious knowledge and the depth of their research in this respect, for if the corrections to earlier editions are largely minor, the supporting explanations are worth the cost of this volume alone.

A minor suggestion: the introduction could have been expanded to provide a wider context for the chronicles of this period of English history. It is, as Christine Carpenter points out in The Wars of the Roses: Politics and the Constitution in England, c. 1437–1509 (Cambridge, 1997), a problem for historians that the chronicles of the Wars of the Roses largely lack any explanation of what happened. This is in marked contrast to the incredible richness of those chronicles that exist for the reign of Richard II. Yet as Keith Dockray explains in Henry VI, Margaret of Anjou and the Wars of the Roses: A Source Book (Stroud, 2000), by the mid-fifteenth century, monastic chronicle writing was in decline, eventually to be replaced by the humanist histories of the early sixteenth century, typified by Polydore Vergil and Sir Thomas More.

As most readers will be aware, the chronicles in this volume vary in nature, purpose, and length. Warksworth's, Howard's, and Gregory's chronicles are “traditional” chronicles addressing relatively long periods of time (though paling in comparison to Thomas Walsingham's St Albans Chronicle, which addressed the period 1376–1422). The others focus on specific battles (The First Battle of St Albans and The Siege of Bamburgh Castle), diplomacy (The Manner and Guiding of the Earl of Warwick), and of events over a much shorter period of time (The History and Arrival of King Edward IV and The Chronicle of the Rebellion in Lincolnshire). All reflect the highly partisan nature of politics during this period and show a largely Yorkist bias (though Warksworth does, as the editors point out, make some critical observations of Edward IV's rule). Other than Warksworth, Gregory, and Howard, the other sources were issued as propaganda, either as leaflets or pamphlets, shortly after the events they describe.

For those who already possess copies of these sources in earlier editions, is this edition worth purchasing? My answer is an emphatic yes, primarily because this edition now provides the most accurate version of key primary sources for this period, along with detailed introductions and, especially, explanatory notes.