The Sunne in Splendour

24th March 1982

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            Sharon Kay Penman wrotten a beautiful and historical novel about our beloved King Richard III. Indeed, Penman became interested in the subject of Richard III while a student and wrote a manuscript that was stolen from her car. She rewrote the manuscript which was published in 1982.

          When the 400-page manuscript was stolen from her car, Penman found herself unable to write for the next five years. She eventually rewrote the book and by the time the 936 page book was published in 1982 she had spent 12 years writing it, while practicing law at the same time.

            The Sunne in Splendour is about the end of England's Wars of the Roses. In the book, Penman characterizes King Richard III as a good, but misunderstood, ruler. She chose to write Richard's character this way after becoming fascinated with his story and researching his life, both in the US and in the UK, which led her to believe that "his was a classic case of history being rewritten by the victor". Penman rejects the common belief that Richard killed the Princes in the Tower, however, she attributes their deaths to the ambitious Duke of Buckingham.

            The story begins in 1459 with Richard as a young boy, and finished in 1485 at the Battle of Bosworth.

From the author' site: 

            "He was the last born son of the Duke of York. He would become the last Plantagenet king of England. He is perhaps the most controversial monarch ever to rule that island nation. Certainly the most vilified. He was Richard III.

            The Sunne in Splendour reverberates with the sound of truth as it re-creates the life of this most complex and compelling man. Born into an England awash with intrigue and war, Richard was eight when his father was ambushed and slain, eighteen when he first blooded himself in combat. His times were torn by shifting alliances that made treachery and danger a part of life. Yet through it all, Richard remained firm in his abiding devotion to those he loved. It was his strength. And his undoing.

            Caught in that vicious power struggle history has called The Wars of the Roses, Richard was raised in the shadow of his resplendent brother Edward. At nineteen and against all odds, Edward defeated the Lancastrian forces and claimed the throne for York. Headstrong, charming, and regally handsome, Edward was as famous for his sensual appetites as for his unfailing preference for the expedient over the correct. Despairing of his brother's follies, Richard nonetheless served him faithfully: through battle and exile, in war and in peace, despite the scandal of Edward's Court and the malice of his Queen. And he was rewarded with honors and lands, with titles and royal commissions, with, above all, affection and trust. Only one thing did Edward deny his favorite brother: the right to wed the woman he adored.

            Anne Neville had fallen in love with Richard when they were both mere children. And he returned her love with an all-consuming passion that was to last a lifetime, enduring forced separation, a brutal marriage, and murderous loss. She was the daughter of his father's closest ally who was now his brother's worst enemy and she became an innocent pawn in a deadly game of power politics. That game was to inflict wounds of the soul that only Richard's patient tenderness could heal. The Sunne in Splendour is the story of Richard's fight to win her and to heal her.

            Five hundred years after he died on the field of battle, Richard is still a figure of controversy and his story still fascinates and casts a spell. Betrayed in life by his allies, Richard was betrayed in death by history. Leaving no heir, his reputation was like his corps: left to his enemies, mutilated beyond recognition.

            Filled with the sights and sounds of battle, the customs and lore of daily life, the rigors and risks of Court politics, the passions and infidelities of the high born, and the touching concerns of very real men and women, The Sunne in Splendourbrings to life this gifted man whose greatest sin, perhaps, was that he held principles too firm for the times he lived in and loved too deeply to survive love's loss."

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This novel is considered as the most detailed and closest to the truth

            “A painstakingly drawn picture of royal medieval England from bedchamber to battleground.” 

Los Angeles Times Book Review

            “The reader is left with the haunting sensation that perhaps the good a man does can live after him especially in the hands of a dedicated historian.”

The San Diego Union

            “Those who know Richard III from Shakespeare will find that Sharon Kay Penman presents a contrasting view of the English monarch . . . He’s an altogether nice man, a romantic hero as suitable to our late twentieth-century standards . . . as he was to those of medieval England . . . There is a vengeful quality to her insistence that is appealing; it makes for a good story.”

The New York Times Book Review

            “Ms. Penman’s novel, rich in detail and research, attempts to set the record straight . . . it is an uncommonly fine novel, one that brings a far-off time to brilliant life.” 

Chattanooga Daily Times

E.A. Lewis

            "Is it fair to review a book that changed your life? No, literally. At fourteen I stayed up until four in the morning, devouring this story of medieval power and politics, and have been a medieval historian ever since.

            Penman has done a fantastic job of turning dry historical fact into fascinating and believable historical fiction. People's motives are not simple and easily understandable in real life, and the sometimes-conflicting drives and needs and desires of the cast of thousands in this book live up to that fact.

            While undeniable sympathetic to King Richard the Third, it is not a cloying, simplistic, Good King Richard whitewash. Instead, it portrays the much-maligned king as an adoring younger brother left adrift when his idol dies and proves to have been less than perfect.

            Supporting characters are equally complex, from the self-destructive King Edward to the self-absorbed Kingmaker, Warwick, from the unlikely queen Elizabeth Woodville to the helpless pawn, Elizabeth of York, from the insane King Henry VI to the ambitious King Henry VII. Possibly the only black villain in the piece is the Duke of Buckingham; everyone else is painted in shades of grey that make them honest people, rather than props.

            If you can't stand historical novels because they are boring, read this. ...It's better than the tabloids!"

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