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The Last of the Barons: Robin

Warwick was defending freedom for the barons. Robin Hilyard was struggling to win freedom for the people as against king and nobles. Yet the earl and Robin found themselves fighting in the same army. "Neither White Rose nor Red shall be on my banner," cried Hilyard, "but our standard shall be the gory head of the first oppressor we can place upon a pole. We are taxed, ground, pillaged, plundered--sheep, maintained to be sheared for your peace or butchered for your war." Through the cause of the gentle Henry in the Tower Robin saw greater freedom for the people.

War is not the only theme of the book, however. The intrigues of the queen's family, the patient diplomacy of the bitter and revengeful Margaret of Anjou, queen of the king in the Tower, the love of the gentle Anne Nevil for Margaret's son Edward, the influence of royal marriages on the fate of nations, the struggles of the Lollards, predecessors of the Puritans who caused Charles the First so much trouble; the fine Italian hand of Richard, Duke of Gloucester; the long and patient toil of Adam Warner, scholar, who dreamed of harnessing steam to his machine, Eureka, to do the work of the world long before the world was ready to have its work done by any such magical means; the chicanery of Friar Bungey, adept in all the secret arts of the time, who thought to steal poor Adam's secret from him; but above all else the troubled tale of love of the beautiful daughter of the scholar, Sibyll, and the great and powerful Lord Hastings, with fate ever playing cruel turns against the girl as well as against the father--all these are part of this fascinating historical romance which author and public united in calling one of the best that came from the prolific pen of Bulwer-Lytton. Warwick lost and Edward won. And with the earl perished Hilyard, but as he bravely met his death Robin cried, "The People are never beaten!"