The White Queen

If you like historic fiction bases on facts (faction) the this is a brilliant series. There are 6 books and, although each book stands alone, if you are going to read all 6 you should/must read them in the right order. Lady of the Rivers, White Queen, Red Queen, Kingmakers daughter, White Princess and Kings Curse. I found each difficult to put down. They all look at the same period of history but each from the view of different women of the time. They are a brilliant read. Each is a great story, brilliantly told, based on historical facts and not a little imagination. Highly recommended.

I have read several of Philippa Gregory's books and find them to be quite a mixed bag. However, this one is certainly a good one. The story is carefully constructed around the known events of the period, and gives some interesting slants on several of the issues still being debated to this day, including the accusation of witchcraft against Elizabeth Woodville, the nature of Richard III, and the deaths of the Princes in the Tower.Some of the characters are well rounded, but others somewhat wooden, but this does not distract from the story. One reasons that I have given 4* is the style of writing is not as clear as it ought to have been, switching from Elizabeth Woodville as narrator of events that she did not witness, to Elizabeth Woodville in first person, and then to un-narrated description. Unfortunately, this switch sometimes occurred more than once in a paragraph, which I found annoying and at times confusing. The other reason for 4* may sound petty, but a large section of the plot hung on the crypt of Westminster Abbey having windows onto the River Thames, and a Thames water gate. Unfortunately, the Palace of Westminster was between the Abbey and the Thames. The river running past the Abbey buildings was the much smaller River Tyburn, which split, either side of both Abbey and Palace creating Thorney Island.The criticism aside, I enjoyed the book, and do recommend it.

The White Queen is the first book in Philippa Gregory's Cousins' War series about the War of the Roses. The heroine is Elizabeth Woodville, a widow with two young boys, who has been left destitute after her husband's death while fighting for the Lancastrian cause. Her sons' inheritance has been seized back by her mother-in-law, so she waits upon the road hoping to meet the new king, Edward IV, and plead for her cause. Edward, however, takes one look at her and falls madly in love (or rather, lust) and is determined to have her for his own, even if that means going against the man who made him king, the Earl of Warwick. When Edward tries to force himself on Elizabeth she turns a knife on him, so he agrees to marry her. But as the marriage takes place in secret, with very few witnesses, is it even legal?The beginning of the story took me a little by surprise, as it is similar to those historical romances I love to read, with not quite so much of the battles and beheadings I'm used to reading about in Philippa Gregory's books. But the characters were very likeable and realistically portrayed, and it was fascinating getting a glimpse of the real people behind the stories in the history books. The first half of the book shows the endless battles Edward went through to keep his throne (we experience them second-hand through Elizabeth, waiting patiently at home). The second half is about how Elizabeth is forced into various alliances to protect her children.I did enjoy reading The White Queen, and would happily give it five stars, but out of the series I think I preferred the later stories. The Red Queen, about Elizabeth's frenemy Margaret Beaufort, was a far more interesting character, as was Elizabeth's mother, Jacquetta of Luxembourg (The Lady of the Rivers) and sometime 'witch'.As The Lady of the Rivers is effectively a prequel to The White Queen and ends at the exact point The White Queen starts, you may wish to start the series with that one. I wish I had read it first, as it would have helped me understand the characters motivation a bit more, and who they all were.

Philippa Gregory is a very renowned writer and historian and here she has put all her weight into sorting out the Wars of the Cousins, or Roses as most people know it. The underlying theme, hardly referred to, is that from the beginning of the fifteenth century(1400) successive kings were usurpers and strictly invalid, which meant of course that the sons and heirs were too. Gregory gives us the counter theme that all the women involved were either acquisitive, ambitious Queens or aspired to be by a fervent support of their sons to be King. This long and occasionally rambling novel is always interesting so that one is eager to turn the page to see what has happened. This starts with Henry 6th who, as the son of the mighty Henry 5th, has much expected of him. As he is a half wit with possibly early dementia his Queen, Margaret of Anjou, fights for his preservation to the end and even assembles armies to fight. Richard of York briefly appears on the scene as Protector but is killed in battle. This brings forward his sons, the eldest of which becomes Edward 4th and is described as an altogether good king but a wild and morally suspect person.The various aspects of ambition eventually leads to Edwards younger brother becoming Richard 3rd. All through this Gregory tells of the various women, but in particular Elisabeth Woodville, Edward's wife, whose naked ambition and wrong headedness leads her into all sorts of scrapes. These are touchingly described by the author but why a beautiful woman, Queen of England, should continue to put her family in danger is puzzling and her perhaps necessary obsession with her son over her daughters is ,to us, irritating. As you could expect from such a respected writer there are counter theories as to what happened to the Princes in the tower. At the end I was seized with a strong desire to read a long account of Elisabeth's brother, Anthony, who seems above all the characters in this fine novel to be worthy of a book all to himself.