I look forward to the main series, and other companion short stories. Arthur's story is tragic at a human level, and it is interesting to speculate how differently English and world history would have turned out had he been healthy and succeeded to the throne instead of his younger brother. The stage is set when Arthur, already suffering from the tuberculosis that will shortly kill him, first reluctantly meets his destined bride Catalina (Catherine) of Aragon. In reality, Arthur is a bookish and physically weak boy who doesn't live up to his parents' or society's expectations for ideal kingship and chafes in the shadow of his ebullient and talented younger brother Henry. The story brings across clearly the weight of expectation and destiny placed on young Arthur as the progenitor of a line of future kings descended from ancient Welsh princes, including the legendary Celtic/Romano-British war leader of the same name, and who will supposedly restore the fortunes of Britain and its kings. In The Wars of the Roses, Alison Weir reconstructs this conflict with the same dramatic flair and impeccable research that she brought to her highly praised The Princes in the Tower. This is a short story told from the point of view of Prince Arthur, elder son of the first Tudor King Henry VII, acting as a companion piece to the first novel in Weir's Six Tudor Queens series focusing on each of the wives of King Henry VIII. The war between the royal House of Lancaster and York, the longest and most complex in British history, profoundly altered the course of the monarchy.
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