His strong-minded queen was detested by the nobles and unpopular with the mass of the people, whilst the ambition of the powerful barons and peers had made civil strife an easy and popular thing.
There was no great issue at stake in these disastrous wars; no burning question was settled by the victory of either side; no great principle or national interest was involved.

It was little more in reality than the struggle for supremacy and place amongst the overbearing and ambitious nobles; hence the ease and readiness with which they changed sides on every imaginable pretext, and the hopeless character of the struggle, which ruined and exhausted the country without vindicating one moral or national principle.
But Paul Stukely, at twenty years of age, was not likely to take this dispassionate view of the case.

His whole heart was in the cause of the Red Rose, and he could scarce listen to these quiet but telling words without breaking out into ardent defence of the cause he had at heart.
"But listen, good mistress," he exclaimed eagerly, when she had ceased to speak: "there are better days dawning for the land than they have seen either beneath the rule of the gentle Henry or the bold but licentious Edward.

His blessed majesty has no love for the office of king, and his long captivity has further weakened his health and increased his love for retirement.

You speak truly when you doubt if he will ever rule this turbulent nation, so long torn with strife and divided into faction.