Towton..

[fajrdrako]

This article about the Battle of Towton is interesting; and this paragraph struck me as a good example of the way journalists view history:

In Shakespeare’s cycle of eight plays, the story of the Wars of the Roses is told as an epic drama. In reality it was a messy series of civil wars—an on-again, off-again conflict pitting supporters of the ruling Lancastrian monarchy against backers of the house of York.

My first thought was: "What's the difference between an epic drama and a a messy series of civil wars?" Obviously, in the point of view: the difference between the point of view of a dramatist, and the point of view of a journalist who tends, as they all do, to denigrate the past by portraying it in unflattering terms, like the fashions of the last generation.

Seems to me that for the pwople at Towton, the battle was neither 'epic' nor 'messy' but part of the ongoing struggle that life foisted upon them - possibly both epic and messy, and many other things besides.