THE PERFECT PRINCE: The Mystery of Perkin Warbeck and His Quest for the Throne of England

Many readers who know the English War of the Roses through the plays of Shakespeare will be interested in the coda Wroe offers to that history: several years into the reign of Henry VII, a young man called Perkin Warbeck claimed to be one of the sons of Edward IV, consigned as boys to the Tower of London and supposedly murdered by order of their uncle, Richard III. Invading England with support from both commoners and princes, Warbeck challenged the legitimacy of the first Tudor king. Wroe nicely evokes the ephemera of image and manners that, along with lineage, enabled a prince to rule. Holding out the barest of possibilities that Warbeck was indeed who he said he was, she recreates the shifting sands of identity that confounded his contemporaries. Prominent figures, including Margaret of York and James IV of Scotland, encouraged the young man based not so much on their belief in his story as on how well it fit their own diplomatic ambitions. Contemporary narratives of lost princes and the desire for leadership made Warbeck's claims reasonable to others. In the end, his successes indicate that the Tudor dynasty was initially no more secure than its predecessors, while his ultimate defeat all but ended the conflicting royal claims that had torn England apart in the previous century. Wroe (Pontius Pilate), a senior editor at the Economist, occasionally digresses in the rich cultural and political context of her story, but amateurs of English history will find a highly readable and fascinating new story among names and events they already know. (On sale Oct. 21)