The Wars of the Roses featured sixteen invasions--four succeeded, and six times kings lost their thrones. This book by Michael Hicks explores why those invasions occurred and kept occurring. Destruction and devastation were minimal, barely affecting the day-to-day routine of the civilian population, yet the Wars were lethal for their noble leaders and, as firsthand accounts reveal, blighted the lives of their women and children. That the Wars ended so abruptly, Hicks concludes, was not so much because Henry VII won at Bosworth and went on to rule effectively, but rather because a feel-good factor removed popular discontent as continental rivals turned elsewhere at the same time.