The White Queen by Philippa Gregory
“The sons of York will destroy each other, one brother destroying another, uncles devouring nephews, fathers beheading sons. They are a house which has to have blood, and they will shed their own if they have no other enemy.”
The White Queen is the story of Elizabeth Woodville, the commoner and former Lancaster supporter, who married the newly crowned Edward IV from the house of York. They married in secret, for love, and kept it quiet for a time because marriages during that time among nobles were arranged for political alliances. Told mostly in the first person from Elizabeth’s point of view, the book starts in 1463 when Elizabeth first meets Edward until 1485 when Edward’s brother Richard III holds the throne.
History has not dealt kindly with Elizabeth Woodville, Queen of Plantagenet King Edward IV, and mother of the princes murdered in the Tower of London. She has been seen as a woman who used her undoubted beauty to influence the king and get important, rich positions for her extended and extensive family.
Philippa Gregory shows us a different woman - one whose family loyalty and sense of honor drive her to negotiate difficult times with perception, grace, and humor. We see a woman of integrity and grace who grows into her role as queen as she fights her own battles and her heartaches. I liked that she was never portrayed as a victim in the book, even though she was often at the mercy of the men surrounding her.
In the book, a lot of Elizabeth’s power is derived from the magical abilities she and her mother, Jacquetta inherited from their ancestor, the water goddess Melusina. The two of them were rumored to be witches, so I thought it was clever of Gregory to weave these magical threads into a book.
There are so many scenes where brother is pitted against brother for control, and the characters involved have no idea whom they can and can not trust. It was a great, suspenseful ride for the reader too! I also thoroughly enjoyed how Ms. Gregory used facts to tell the story while also embellishing the mysteries and holes in the characters’ lives to make a very readable story.
The White Queen even includes depictions of battle scenes, some violence. While I admit, Gregory broke the first-person viewpoint to write these scenes with little explanation, this can be overlooked because of the realistic and impeccable quality of the scenes themselves. Gregory’s depiction of war is flawless, easy to understand, and adds a new dimension to her writing that some readers will embrace, and others will shun.
Overall, it is a convoluted tale of long ago monarchy that reflects the universal, timeless emotions all of us have struggled with, jealousy, anger, betrayal, fear, and love. Gregory brings the War of the Roses alive, with its struggles for power and cruel disregard for human life, while also introducing a thread of magic and a hint of witchcraft. It’s Gregory’s ability to delve into the human heart and mind that makes her books so irresistible, and The White Queen is no exception.
My Rating
✬✬✬✬✬
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