Cylchgronau Cymru

radical change. The acceptance of the title of king of Ireland by Henry VIII and the enforcement of the Reformation in Ireland assuredly mark the end of an era in both Anglo-Irish and Gaelic history. For the most part Cosgrove adopts a chronological framework, and his rich narrative should win this hitherto unfashionable period of Irish history new friends. His analysis of aristocratic politics is most sensitive, and his approach is reminiscent of K. B. McFarlane's work on the Wars of the Roses. In one chapter he halts in his progress through time and offers instead a memorable perambulation of Ireland, examining issues of race, nationality and culture and revealing the kaleidoscopic complexity of local politics. The general reader and the specialist alike will find here food for thought that is both appetising and nutritious. Yet it is a pity that the author adopted such an exclusively political frame of reference. Comparable in size, James Lydon's contribution to the 'Gill History of Ireland' still offers a better balanced diet. Though published work in fields other than constitutional and ecclesiastical history remains sparse, there is interesting research in progress on the economic, social and cultural life of late-medieval Ireland, and what is needed are some fruitful new hypotheses to marshal and direct the enterprise. Perhaps this is too much to expect of a series designed for the general reader, but there are enough inspired moments in Cosgrove's scholarly survey to suggest that it is not too much to expect of him. Tasmania MICHAEL bennett THE LIFE AND Times OF EDWARD IV. By Gila Falkus. Weidenfield and Nicolson, 1981. Pp. 224. £ 7.50. Lady Antonia Fraser's popular history of English kings and their times has arrived at Edward IV. Lavishly illustrated (although curiously without maps), the text is essentially a narrative sketch of the period 1450-1483 culled, it would appear, from a handful of secondary works. Unfortunately, these are not very carefully used for the work is full of errors, beginning in the very first sentence, where it is confidently but erroneously stated that Edward IV's parents were married in 1438 instead of 1424. The casual handling of unacknowledged sources is indicated in the statement (p. 64) that 'Edward reached York on 19 November but was there stricken with measles', which seems to be based on Professor Ross's statement (Edward IV, p. 51) that 'Edward had himself reached York on 19 November, and moved on to Durham, only to fall ill with measles' (my italics). Behind many of the errors there also seems to lie a lack of familiarity with fifteenth-century history. Only someone not at home in the subject could write that Neville power in the north lay in the counties along the Scottish border and that the feud with the Percies dominated local politics in Northumberland and Westmorland (pp. 20, 34), or that Edmund, duke of Somerset had replaced York in France in 1443 (p. 28, my italics), or not know that Humphrey Neville of Brancepeth had deep-rooted family reasons for opposing Warwick and that there was nothing ironic in his rising in 1469 (p. 116). When the author occasionally moves from narrative to analysis she is hardly more convincing. Her summary of Edward IV's