Covering the reign of Henry VII, all the way to the death of his granddaughter, Elizabeth I, the 6th Book of the Story of London is an immense dive into the life of the city- its people, its events and its ever changing face. W wild and detailed account of life in London, where some of the residents were to embed themselves into our very national consciousness, and where the children of poor residents were to rise to the highest levels of society. A wild and fascinating journey lies ahead… welcome then to Book 6 of The Story of London- Glorianna!

Cover features the ‘Whitehall Mural’ by van Leemput, after Hans Holbein the Younger, 1667

And this is it… a bumper Chapter as we focus on the event that was to change the history of London irrevocably; how the hell a complete non-entity like Henry Tudor was able to suddenly and dramatically take the throne of England; and along the way, have London witness an amazing local woman with impressive powers of reinvention; arguably the most awkward statement ever made by a king in the cities history, and the prototype of all future pushy showbiz mothers… Book 5 of The Story of London, concludes with the final twist in the Wars of the Roses.

The Wars of the Roses began their final spasm, and in this chapter we explore how Richard, Duke of Gloucester, Lord Protector of England, sitting in the mansion of a rich London Grocer near Bishopsgate, would, over a series of a few weeks, turn into Richard III, King of England.

But more than the traditional narrative, it is an exploration of London in those weeks- what did they hear, what did they see, and above all, how did they respond. From mobs pouring into Westminster Abbey, to a significant moment of silence in the Guildhall, from crowds listening in stunned silence around St Paul’s Cross, to cheering the coronation, London witnessed and partook in all events. How loyal were they to this man? Were they indeed, as Shakespeare later called them, his ‘duteous citizens’?

Cover contains a detail of The Princes in the Tower by John Everett Millais (1878).

A bumper episode that sees London suffering a fresh outbreak of the plague, Banks collapsing, cheeky church robbers, the sordid details of Edward IV’s lovers (including his London born mistress), and the sudden and dramatic shift in politics… the King dies, a coup is pulled off and then a counter coup, all done seemingly with the consent of London. But as Richard, Duke of Gloucester emerges as the main power in England, sat in a Grocers resplendent mansion over by Bishopsgate, he finds himself contemplating if he is about to commit the sins of father once again…

Cover art ‘A Man and his Grandson’, ca. 1490 (Domenico Ghirlandaio) (1449-1494) Musée du Louvre, Paris

The events of the Wars of the Roses caused many changes in England, but the impact upon the economic and political landscape of London, is often overlooked. This episode, we take a short break from the nobles, the King, the intrigues of the Houses of York and Lancaster, to just look at what was happening in London and on its streets at the time… and also how forces beyond anyones control, changes in population, in wealth distribution, in social mobility, and wider forces of economic changes across Europe, saw that the most political powerful of all the Guilds of London to date, the Grocers Company, stumbled, and then fell from the dominant position they had once held. This then examines why we feel we are passing out of the medieval world and into something new- a new world being born before our very eyes.

The Roses of the Roses SEEMED to be over; and King Edward IV began to consolidate his rule over the land. What follows are 9 years where London begins to try and regain its equilibrium while Grocers and mercers fall out over who stands where in St Paul’s, where we examine the much overlooked ‘other’ duties of the cities Sargent-at-Arms; where suddenly the Hundred Years War seems to be starting again, and where the young and energetic Edward IV seems to turn from a eager young warlord, into a fat, vicious and dangerous spider… bringing order even at the cost of his close family.

In 1471 London as a city came under a three pronged attack- well armed and well trained soldiers assailed London Bridge, Bishopsgate in the West End and Aldgate in the East End, while artillery showed shells from Southwark into London itself… one of the most overlooked moments of the cities history, coming as it did only a few weeks after a massive battle just north of the city in Barnet. The Story of London details one of the more exciting moments in its history with a detailed account of those mad few weeks.

We have reached 1469, and arguably the three most intense, most insane, years of the Wars of the Roses- the wild, forever unstable Kingdom was rocked as regimes rose and fell with alarming speed; two kings; two invasions from Europe; three separate governments, seemingly constant insurrections and rebellions… London found itself trying to cope with a failing nation around it. And upon its streets and within its civic buildings, drama and melodrama was played out, as the carnage began, with slow and terrible certainty, to draw itself closer to the capital.

Young, charismatic, intelligent, and highly popular in London, Edward IV seemed to have it all. For our city, his reign promised much, a new start, a new dawn even, of a king inclined to their sensibilities and with a long and prosperous reign before him. And yet, while the city became host to marvellous royal pageants and tournaments, it was still seeing show trials and executions, and the miasma of Civil War hung over everything. In truth, Edward IV was doomed, a young man who would never be able to solve the crisis the kingdom was in, and the decade, and this chapter, explores what went wrong…

After a weeks break due to ill health, the Story returns with an episode that unashamedly takes a short break from the grand narrative of the Wars of the Roses, to look at the politics and changing fortunes of London’s Grocers, Mercers, Wool Staplers and Merchant Adventurers in the aftermath of the city siding with the Yorkist faction. How did the city cope with the huge recession the civil wars had caused, and how did it recover… welcome then to Yorkist London.