![]() ![]() ![]() OK, £400 does not sound much in 2020, maybe a Solicitor’s hourly rate but in the 1390s 1000 marks (about £667) was the basic annual income qualification for an earldom. One of the interesting snippets I have picked up from this book is that in the 1390s Henry spent over £400 in legal fees chasing up various land claims that he thought he was entitled to pursue. Not because it’s a bad book (it isn’t) or because Given-Wilson is a bad writer or a poor historian (the very opposite is true) but because, quite frankly, I find Henry a deeply unsympathetic character, and the more I learn about him the less I like him. It’s a massive book, full of information, probably the most complete work on Henry since Wylie’s four-volume effort in the 19th Century. In my spare time I have been reading Henry IV by Chris Given-Wilson. ![]()
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