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Interview with author Philippa Gregory and a review of her new novel about the war of two queens, the founding of the House of Tudor
Rating: 3 Stars
“One of the most difficult things I have ever done in writing was shift my own perspective so that after three years of thinking entirely from the point of view of Elizabeth Woodville and from the point of view of the house of York, I had to convert to the view of Margaret Beaufort and the house of Lancaster,” says The Red Queen author Philippa Gregory who had previously written The White Queen. Both were ambitious English noblewomen in the fifteenth century who rose to great power.
The Red Queen is Margaret Beaufort, also known as Margaret Stanley, the mother of Henry VII. Fiercely protective, she sends her son away to save his life. She marries two more times. When her son is trained and of an age to come back and claim his inheritance, she and her current husband support the rebellion.
Margaret is known to be religious, but also cruel. At that time it may have been the only way she could survive such a harsh world for women. Margaret is flawed and it’s difficult to read about such a flawed character. Margaret is harsh, and Gregory helps us understand why she did some of the things she does for her son and her own survival. Because the stories of The White Queen and The Red Queen overlap, there are scenes that repeat from the first book. Gregory paints the battle scenes vividly and we see the moves are well reasoned. The English countryside is beautifully depicted. The picture of the overblown excesses at court is richly drawn.
“Margaret has the more typical life of a woman of her class,” says Gregory. “Many of the noblewomen of this time were placed in arranged marriages for the advantage of their families. She was exceptionally young, but most noblewomen could expect to be married at sixteen. What is unusual about Margaret is that it seems likely that her third marriage was indeed arranged by herself, to position herself at the York court, and to give her son a stepfather of immense wealth and influence. In this she was very powerfully taking control of her own destiny, and this was unusual, even for widows.”
“Because the history of the period has been mostly written by men…we simply don’t know the extent of the involvement of Elizabeth Woodville and Margaret Beaufort in the Buckingham rebellion or the Tudor invasion,” says Gregory. “We can only deduce that they were deeply involved.”
Philippa Gregory lives with her family on a small farm in Yorkshire, England. Her next book tells the story of Elizabeth Woodville’s mother, a supporting character in The Red Queen.
The Red Queen by Philippa Gregory. Hardcover, 400 pages, Publisher: Touchstone; 1st edition (August 3, 2010), Language: English ISBN: 9781416563723 $25.99
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