The Cousins' War

I just finished reading the second book in Philippa Gregory's The Cousins' War series. It's a trilogy of books about England's War of the Roses, told from the perspective of the women who were at the center of it. The first, The White Queen, was about Elizabeth Woodville, who married Edward IV. It tells of her life, from the time she first meets the young king, through her retirement to a country house, and agreeing to marry her daughter to Henry Tudor after his victory over Richard III. I've read other novels about Elizabeth, and this one seemed to take the middle road. She was portrayed as power-hungry but not an absolute bitch, realistic but also a woman who was genuinely in love with her husband. I wasn't blown away by the book, but it was entertaining, and I did feel some connection and sympathy for her, especially after Edward passed away and she lost her sons. (For those of you who don't recognize the names, this was the mother of the famous Princes in the Tower, who "disappeared" after their uncle Richard III took power. His name has been made infamous for allegedly killing the boys, but Shakespeare wasn't an historian, and he was also writing during Tudor reign.)

The second book is The Red Queen, and is about the life of Margaret Beaufort, mother of Henry Tudor. In most books, she is a minor character, someone shown to be very pious, and fairly two-dimensional. This book gives her the center stage, but I'm not sure that's really much of a blessing. She certainly is devout, she does everything with the thought of putting her son on the throne, and she spends much of her life wondering why Elizabeth Woodville should have been favored and not her. There was room to make her a sympathetic character, but I never felt any connection toward Margaret. Actually, I spent much of the book wanting to just slap her. She whined and sulked about not getting favor, despite her mantra that she was "God's chosen handmaiden", never believed that her actions could account for her circumstances (after all, she was following the will of God, so anything she did was blessed), and would probably have been happiest if she had been condemned to death as a martyr. For all that, her greatest ambition, as she mentions several times, is to be able to sign her name "Margaret Regina" - as a queen.

I don't doubt that Margaret Beaufort (who seems to have "forgotten" that the Beauforts were legitimatized on the grounds that neither they nor their descendants seek the throne) was as ambitious as portrayed. And I know that she was incredibly devout. But that ambition and devotion seems to have sucked any likable aspects out of her personality.

The last book in the trilogy is said to be The White Princess. If I had to guess, as I've not seen anything on it, I would say it is about Elizabeth of York. This was the eldest child of Edward IV and Elizabeth Woodville and married Henry Tudor . She may best be known as the mother of Henry VIII and the grandmother of Elizabeth I.

Am I sorry I've read these? Well, no. It's historically accurate, in terms of dates, battles, and family connections. It takes a few liberties, as any historical-fiction does, in imagining private conversations, motives, and of course, who really did order the Princes to be killed. I also will admit to a bit of bias coming into the series - the Plantagents are my favorite royals, and I never cared overly much for the Tudors, with the exception of Henry VIII, who seems to me to take after his Plantagenet grandfather in a lot of ways. So, I sort of expected to not like Margaret very much; what surprised me was in not being able to care enough about her to especially dislike her. I just found her to be more annoying than not, and wished someone would finally listen to her and shut her up in an abbey somewhere. Let's hope that Elizabeth of York shows a bit more character.