Basing her research on a wide range of archival material, Dr. Horrox highlights a crucial feature of royal government in this period--the role of the king's servants. For the years immediately before and during Richard's reign, the book explores fully the practicalities of obedience, the reciprocal nature of service relationships, and the whole structure of late medieval "affinities" or client systems.

Despite the recent renaissance in studies of the reign of Richard III, most historians have remained focussed on conventional themes.

Acknowledgements; Abbreviations; Introduction: the roots of service; 1. The creation of an affinity; 2. The usurpation; 3. Rebellion; 4. The reassertion of royal authority; 5. The king's household; 6. The collapse of the regime; Conclusion; Bibliography; Index.

'Why did the Yorkists fail and the Tudors succeed? This book, the best study of Richard III for a generation, offers its own subject as an answer. The verdict is damning, and carries the more conviction because it is based on analysis of Richard's policies, not his psyche.' The Times Literary Supplement 'This is an absorbing book ... (Dr Horrox's) command of the source material is circumspect, subtle, authoritative and flawless. This is a masterly work: time, effort, intelligence and skill have gone into its creation and none of these is flaunted.' History ' ... fills an important gap in the impressive literature on Richard III and, using a wide range of primary sources and up-to-date secondary works, offers a new approach to the reign.' History Today 'Dr Horrox's work is already well known to students of the Yorkist period ... but in this outstanding new book she has put scholars even deeper in her debt ... What she has done ... supremely well is to demonstrate the complexity of late Yorkist political society and to point to ways in which it can be illuminated.' The Ricardian