This is Book Two of my 2010 Global Reading Challenge. After 'The Virgin's Lover', I was almost ready to give up reading Philippa Gregory, but am glad that I changed my mind to pick up this book.
This is the story of Elizabeth Woodville, the widowed mother of two boys who sets her heart upon the young King of the House of York. It is a story based on historical facts interwoven with magical folklore, and paints the White Queen as an ambitious woman whose ambitions stem from her devotion and duty as a wife, sister, daughter and mother.
The book starts with the legend of Melusina, a water goddess who marries a mortal man but later leaves him when he breaks his promise to her.
The tragedy of Melusina, whatever language tells it, whatever tune it sings, is that a man will always promise more than he can do to a woman he cannot understand.
With this as the introduction, I was lead to believe that Elizabeth Woodville was somehow jilted or betrayed by her husband, but this was not the case. Twice, Elizabeth outlived her husbands, and although King Edward was not a saint, he loved her dearly and hardly gave her cause for concern as to where his affections lay. There were only two occasions where Elizabeth had doubts of his commitment: after their secret marriage was ridiculed by her brother Anthony, and during the birth of one of her children when the King kept a mistress. The mistress, however, admitted to Elizabeth later that the King only ever really loved the Queen.
The story of Melusina is told in bits and pieces, scattered throughout the main story of Queen Elizabeth and the Wars of the Roses (or the Cousins' War), as a homage to the queen's ancestry. Through her mother, Jacquetta, Elizabeth Woodville is a descendant of the water goddess, whose sons become the Dukes of Burgundy and daughters inherit the Sight. It is this mystical link also that is played up through Jacquetta and Elizabeth's characters where they dabble in some spells, allegedly whistling up storms, mists and rain to help them in their cause.
I found this book interesting to read mainly because I don't know much about the Wars of the Roses, and even less about Elizabeth Woodville. She was depicted as a woman of great beauty - and fertile too, giving King Edward three princes and six princesses in addition to her two older boys. Sadly two of her royal children died in early childhood, and the two remaining princes are famous for mysteriously disappearing while they were held in the Tower of London under the 'protection' of their usurping uncle, Richard III. Gregory puts her own spin to this mystery, which I find quite plausible.
The story of Melusina is told in bits and pieces, scattered throughout the main story of Queen Elizabeth and the Wars of the Roses (or the Cousins' War), as a homage to the queen's ancestry. Through her mother, Jacquetta, Elizabeth Woodville is a descendant of the water goddess, whose sons become the Dukes of Burgundy and daughters inherit the Sight. It is this mystical link also that is played up through Jacquetta and Elizabeth's characters where they dabble in some spells, allegedly whistling up storms, mists and rain to help them in their cause.
I found this book interesting to read mainly because I don't know much about the Wars of the Roses, and even less about Elizabeth Woodville. She was depicted as a woman of great beauty - and fertile too, giving King Edward three princes and six princesses in addition to her two older boys. Sadly two of her royal children died in early childhood, and the two remaining princes are famous for mysteriously disappearing while they were held in the Tower of London under the 'protection' of their usurping uncle, Richard III. Gregory puts her own spin to this mystery, which I find quite plausible.
Typical of historical fiction about royal families, the book is rife with plots, traitors and battles. There is less scandal than The Other Boleyn Girl (or at least not as outrageously depicted) and not as saccharine sweet as The Constant Princess. There are enough events and interesting characters to keep me interested right till the cliffhanger ending, and I am keen to find out how she wraps it up in the other two books of this series. As Elizabeth says to herself,
As if I think we can ever be an ordinary family. We are Plantagenets. How could we be ordinary?
