Author : Philippa Gregory
Genre : Historical fiction
Warning : spoilers ahead!
I love historical fiction - even the kind that takes occasional liberties with history in favor of fiction. And I've read enough of Philippa Gregory's works as well as those by a few others to say that 'The Red Queen' left me sorely disappointed.
Set during the tumultuous times of the 'War of the Roses', 'The Red Queen' is all about Margaret Beaufort - the woman posterity now knows as the 'Tudor Matriarch'. Right from childhood, Margaret is filled with a sense of divine purpose. As a child, she believes herself to be 'special to God' in the manner of Joan of Arc. As the last remaining heiress to a tenuous Lancaster connection through descent from the 'other side' of John of Gaunt's bed, it is impressed upon Margaret at an early age that she must marry well. And she does - following her mother's diktats much against her own will that would see her settled an abbess, she marries Edmund Tudor (another with royal claims through the 'other side' of Catherine of Valois' bed). Their only child, Henry Tudor, goes on to claim the crown as Henry VII thereby uniting the Houses of Lancaster and York under a common sigil - the Tudor Rose.
With so much drama, intrigue and politicking (not to mention the battles and murders et al), all that you really come away with is the feeling that Margaret, far from being the iron-willed, purposeful founder of England's most enduring royal dynasty, is really just a petulant child. The book is filled with a near constant refrain of ' for is it not God's will that I should be the Queen / Queen Mother and write my name as Margaret R (for Regina)' and other such allusions to the lead character's 'divine destiny' that whatever little sympathy you have for the child Margaret, forced into a loveless marriage first with Edmund Tudor and then into another with Henry Stafford, dissipates quickly to be replaced with a growing sense of irritation and boredom. A far cry from either naivete or increasing shrewdness, all that Margaret comes across as is a whining, miserable and peevish girl who grows into a cantankerous woman filled with a sense of hatred towards whom she sees as usurping her 'god given' and 'divine' right. At the worst moment of her life, when she is mere inches away from a certain death as a traitor, she believes that she is being punished by God for the sins of those she chose to ally with (namely Elizabeth Woodville and the Duke of Buckingham). She, of course, is always as pure as driven snow and believes herself to be above the sin of being greedy, power hungry and envious of others while constantly being thankless towards the comforts of life afforded to her with a remarkably tolerant husband in Henry Stafford.
Jasper Tudor, the only man who arouses admiration and even love in the devoutly pious Margaret, and whom she sees as the only hope for fulfilling the destiny intended for herself and her son, flits in an out of the pages as the fortunes of the House of Lancaster (and therefore those of the two Tudors) wax and wane with every battle and change of alliances over the years. Henry Stafford , whom Margaret sees as weak-willed and cowardly, arouses sympathy as a man who is trying to stay true to his ideals of right and wrong and searching for a tenuous peace in these times of war. He is also kind, caring and gentlemanly towards his wife, who of-course, would rather he were a boorish lout who treated her with contempt and violence (as men were wont to do at the time) as long as he had a passion for war and a willingness to fight for the increasingly feeble minded Henry VI. Her third husband, Thomas Stanley, whom she marries for convenience, turns the tide for her son at the Battle of Bosworth Field by choosing to refrain from fighting alongside the armies of King Richard III. Stanley is the consummate politician and shrewd aristocrat - he (and it is hinted his entire family) has perfected the art of 'staying on the winning side' and it is for this that Margaret marries him.
The real heroine of the book then seems to be the mysterious Elizabeth Woodville, Queen of Edward IV, who elicits an incessant stream of hatred and envy from Margaret and who is referred to by her as sinful, shameless and a witch. Indeed, Margaret's constant focus on Elizabeth as the source of all her 'misery' and 'misfortune' makes one want to find out more about this alluring character, herself the subject of Gregory's previous book 'The White Queen'. It also makes one wonder just how much of the hate is really borne out of a grudging sense of respect for a woman who, as a commoner, dared to marry a King, and through every turn of history, emerged with her fortunes (and those of her family) mostly intact.
For those who have read previous works by Gregory - do not expect the same richness of scene as afforded by 'The Other Boleyn Girl' or even mild shards of sympathy for Margaret as for Jane Rochford in 'The Boleyn Inheritance'. At most, Gregory's Margaret arouses some pity and an overall longing to slap some sense into her ungrateful, ill-behaved and forever lamenting character !
Genre : Historical fiction
Warning : spoilers ahead!
I love historical fiction - even the kind that takes occasional liberties with history in favor of fiction. And I've read enough of Philippa Gregory's works as well as those by a few others to say that 'The Red Queen' left me sorely disappointed.
Set during the tumultuous times of the 'War of the Roses', 'The Red Queen' is all about Margaret Beaufort - the woman posterity now knows as the 'Tudor Matriarch'. Right from childhood, Margaret is filled with a sense of divine purpose. As a child, she believes herself to be 'special to God' in the manner of Joan of Arc. As the last remaining heiress to a tenuous Lancaster connection through descent from the 'other side' of John of Gaunt's bed, it is impressed upon Margaret at an early age that she must marry well. And she does - following her mother's diktats much against her own will that would see her settled an abbess, she marries Edmund Tudor (another with royal claims through the 'other side' of Catherine of Valois' bed). Their only child, Henry Tudor, goes on to claim the crown as Henry VII thereby uniting the Houses of Lancaster and York under a common sigil - the Tudor Rose.
With so much drama, intrigue and politicking (not to mention the battles and murders et al), all that you really come away with is the feeling that Margaret, far from being the iron-willed, purposeful founder of England's most enduring royal dynasty, is really just a petulant child. The book is filled with a near constant refrain of ' for is it not God's will that I should be the Queen / Queen Mother and write my name as Margaret R (for Regina)' and other such allusions to the lead character's 'divine destiny' that whatever little sympathy you have for the child Margaret, forced into a loveless marriage first with Edmund Tudor and then into another with Henry Stafford, dissipates quickly to be replaced with a growing sense of irritation and boredom. A far cry from either naivete or increasing shrewdness, all that Margaret comes across as is a whining, miserable and peevish girl who grows into a cantankerous woman filled with a sense of hatred towards whom she sees as usurping her 'god given' and 'divine' right. At the worst moment of her life, when she is mere inches away from a certain death as a traitor, she believes that she is being punished by God for the sins of those she chose to ally with (namely Elizabeth Woodville and the Duke of Buckingham). She, of course, is always as pure as driven snow and believes herself to be above the sin of being greedy, power hungry and envious of others while constantly being thankless towards the comforts of life afforded to her with a remarkably tolerant husband in Henry Stafford.
Jasper Tudor, the only man who arouses admiration and even love in the devoutly pious Margaret, and whom she sees as the only hope for fulfilling the destiny intended for herself and her son, flits in an out of the pages as the fortunes of the House of Lancaster (and therefore those of the two Tudors) wax and wane with every battle and change of alliances over the years. Henry Stafford , whom Margaret sees as weak-willed and cowardly, arouses sympathy as a man who is trying to stay true to his ideals of right and wrong and searching for a tenuous peace in these times of war. He is also kind, caring and gentlemanly towards his wife, who of-course, would rather he were a boorish lout who treated her with contempt and violence (as men were wont to do at the time) as long as he had a passion for war and a willingness to fight for the increasingly feeble minded Henry VI. Her third husband, Thomas Stanley, whom she marries for convenience, turns the tide for her son at the Battle of Bosworth Field by choosing to refrain from fighting alongside the armies of King Richard III. Stanley is the consummate politician and shrewd aristocrat - he (and it is hinted his entire family) has perfected the art of 'staying on the winning side' and it is for this that Margaret marries him.
The real heroine of the book then seems to be the mysterious Elizabeth Woodville, Queen of Edward IV, who elicits an incessant stream of hatred and envy from Margaret and who is referred to by her as sinful, shameless and a witch. Indeed, Margaret's constant focus on Elizabeth as the source of all her 'misery' and 'misfortune' makes one want to find out more about this alluring character, herself the subject of Gregory's previous book 'The White Queen'. It also makes one wonder just how much of the hate is really borne out of a grudging sense of respect for a woman who, as a commoner, dared to marry a King, and through every turn of history, emerged with her fortunes (and those of her family) mostly intact.
For those who have read previous works by Gregory - do not expect the same richness of scene as afforded by 'The Other Boleyn Girl' or even mild shards of sympathy for Margaret as for Jane Rochford in 'The Boleyn Inheritance'. At most, Gregory's Margaret arouses some pity and an overall longing to slap some sense into her ungrateful, ill-behaved and forever lamenting character !
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