The Last of the Barons

Edward IV's court is a battlefield of rival loyalties, where war, marriage, and ambition turn allies into enemies. As Edward grows wary of Warwick's power and blocks Clarence's marriage to Isabel, the Nevile faction answers with a sweeping counterstrategy: a network of marriages meant to bind Clarence to Isabel, Gloucester to Anne, and Montagu's son to the king's daughter, all designed to outmaneuver the Woodvilles and reshape England's future. Against this backdrop of faction and unrest, the story widens to include Adam Warner, a weary alchemist whose ruined hopes mirror the kingdom's corruption. His encounters with Robin Hilyard and the fraudulent Friar Bungey expose a world where science, superstition, and politics blur into one another, and where even a wax effigy of Warwick becomes a weapon of intrigue. Adam's sorrow finds contrast in the quiet tenderness of his daughter Sibyll, while Katherine Bonville's warning about Lord Hastings reveals the cruelty and humiliation lurking beneath courtly grace. Meanwhile, Robin of Redesdale channels northern anger over taxation, oppression, and Woodville dominance into the threat of rebellion. Lord Montagu, tempted by the disorder, watches the storm gather, as private grievances and public discontent move England toward open upheaval. This edition has been fully restored with modern typesetting, custom cover design.