From the Wars of the Roses to the White House

Biden's Pardon Power and The Fragility of Legitimacy

I often find that allure of reading history lies in its uncanny ability to echo through time, drawing me into its narratives and reminding me that the struggles of the past always bear striking resemblance to those of the present. Over this Thanksgiving break and during my family’s travels this past week I’ve taken opportunity to read two books on a part of British history that fascinates me still as it did the first time I ever read Henry V to Richard III by Shakespeare, that era is the War of the Roses. I’ve likely read libraries of books on the subject of The War of the Roses and often find that I can never get enough of it, not simply because what is known, but because of what is unknown that rattles around in my head and I try to find ways to infuse it into modern conversations when I can (Kind of like this article you’re reading GOTCHA!). Over the weekend I’ve immersed myself in two books detailing this part of history that I can never get enough of both Dan Jones’ The Wars of the Roses: The Fall of the Plantagenets and the Rise of the Tudors and Philippa Langley’s The Princes in the Tower: Solving History’s Greatest Cold Case. While reading these back and forth and also keeping up with our current events I’ve been struck by how the fragile construct of legitimacy in medieval England—secured through cunning, alliances, and often betrayal—bears unsettling parallels to today’s political landscape. In our modern era where we pride ourselves on being a nation of laws, not men or kings, the recent pardon of Hunter Biden reveals the enduring tension between power and principle. President Biden’s act, following his assurances of impartiality, echoes the pragmatic betrayals of medieval rulers. Our responses to this news are equally telling: in modern partisan politics, the outrage over legitimacy often depends not on principle but on whose side committed the breach. Worse still, the wrongs of one leader—whether Biden or Trump—are used to justify the wrongs of another, reducing legitimacy to a partisan game. This dangerous erosion, much like the turmoil in Richard III’s England, reminds us that legitimacy must be earned through consistent adherence to principle, not selectively weaponized for political gain. So if you’ll entertain me I’m going to shoehorn some of this War of the Roses history into a topic I reference a lot the legitimacy of government. That’s what you get for paying for a subscription, me meandering about history. For non-pay accounts (and those that don’t want to get lost in me freewriting about the War of the Roses, I might edit out some of the content and focus more on Biden’s decision. For those of you that pay the 5 bucks a month for some reason- here’s me nerd rambling:

Game of Thrones Game of Roses