Military Review English Edition July-August 2016 | Page 144

Does this necessarily mean that Richard III was
the quintessence of evil? Jones’s evidence points to his
demeanor being somewhere in between. He makes the
case that Richard III did possibly commit some horrendous acts, such as murdering Edward IV’s (his brother’s)
two sons. Jones also points out that Richard did commit
some heroic acts, such as his doomed charge against
Henry VII’s ranks at the Battle of Bosworth. The objective nature with which Jones approaches his research is
commendable. The reader is never forced to see things
Jones’ way when reading his text. He simply states his
researched discoveries and allows the readers to make
their decision.
As mentioned before, Jones’s book also discusses
where the Battle of Bosworth occurred. This discussion does not necessarily add to his initial argument,
but it could rather be the subject of another publication. The lasting effects of the battle itself are what
really matters in this book. It represents the end of one
chapter of the history of the British people and the
beginning of another.
In terms of the quality of study by historians, this
text is extraordinarily valuable. Its objective nature and
fresh look on a subject a few centuries old create an
informative and enlightening read.
Right from the start, Jones makes the claim that
his book is intended for a general audience. It is not
over-burdened with in-text sources, which allows for
a very easy and informative read. For someone interested in a pivotal moment in British history, I would
highly recommend Bosworth 1485: The Battle that
Transformed England.

1st Lt. Eugene M. Harding,
U.S. Army National Guard, Auburn, Indiana

SPAIN

The Centre of the World, 1519–1682

Robert Goodwin, Bloomsbury Press, New York,
2015, 608 pages
Robert Goodwin presents the reader with an intimate portrait of Spain during its Golden Age in which
he more or less successfully weaves the separate strands
of music, art, military affairs, politics, economics, and
religion together and shows us the relationships among
them. Spain is presented as a cosmopolitan Renaissance
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state with Castilian overtones. Goodwin gives us a
world in which the modern nation-state is struggling to
be born, high politics resembles a series of family feuds,
feudal and aristocratic mores struggle for social dominion with a bourgeois set of values, and religion has a
paramount role in society.
The narrative is divided into two parts: “Gold” and
“Glitter.” “Gold” shows how the Spanish monarchs built
on their Habsburg and Aragonese inheritances to fashion a globe-girdling empire—from the Mediterranean
basin and northern Europe to the Caribbean basin
and from the Americas to Africa and Asia. Goodwin
details the ways the representatives of Charles V
and Philip II conquered, administered, and exploited the resources of this empire, as well as defended
Catholic orthodoxy in the face of Protestantism
as Holy Roman emperors. “Glitter” shows Spain in
relative decline, with both Philip III and Philip IV
drawn into endless wars with the Netherlands and
their allies; Spanish society is contrasted with the
expansive Dutch, French, and English societies. These
rising powers supplanted Spain and the Habsburgs
in Europe, but in its relative decline, Spain created a
Golden Age of art and literature while remaining a
Great Power with an extensive colonial empire.
Goodwin depicts Spanish monarchs and their
courts as sophisticated patrons of the arts as well as
capable military men who understood how to wage war
despite the handicaps concerning public finance imposed by a divided medieval state structure. All those
attributes intertwine with devotion to religion that
most of us today do not understand.
The study of Spanish history and the Spanish
Empire in the Americas is neglected in our educational system. If studied at all, Spanish history is a
precursor to the English and French colonization of
the Americas. The study of Spanish history remains
heavily influenced by the Black Legend of Spain,
assiduously propagated by those who emphasized the
villainy of Catholic Spain, supposedly exemplified
by the Inquisition and the merciless conquest of the
indigenous high civilizations of the Americas. Goodwin
exposes the falsity of this portrait.
The Spanish Empire existed from the early sixteenth
century until the early nineteenth century. Its final
remnants were liquidated only in 1898. In Central and
South America, it created dependencies that matured
July-August 2016  MILITARY REVIEW