Tag Archives: English history

The Women of the Cousins’ War by Philippa Gregory, David Baldwin and Michael Jones

Posted on by
1

The Women of the Cousins’ War is a non-fiction book which is written by three historians. The Cousins’ War is more commonly known as The Hundred Years War. Philippa Gregory has written the first section which is about the little known Jacquetta of Luxembourg who lived from 1415-16 to 1472.  She became the Duchess of Bedford and would have had a high profile in royal circles. She was related to both royal houses, Lancaster and York, but there was no biography of her. Philippa Gregory trawled through many documents to fill in the gaps that had been left about Jacquetta’s life. She was around at the same time as Joan of Arc, and may have met her.

The second section of this book is about Elizabeth Woodville, 1437/38 to 1492, and it’s written by the historian David Baldwin. I think Elizabeth Woodville is well-known to anyone with an interest in English history, it has always been a puzzle as to how she managed to get Edward IV to marry her at the drop of a hat (she was a widow much older than Edward and with two sons of her own, plus a large voraciously ambitious extended family). It’s no wonder that witchcraft was suspected by some! I think it’s safe to say that Elizabeth was very good at managing people.

The last section of the book features Margaret Beaufort, 1443-1509, and it’s written by Michael Jones. He describes Margaret as being intelligent, courageous and astute. It seems that she was the opposite of the men in her family whose behaviour left a lot to be desired. Margaret’s childhood was a tough one for this reason and I suspect that nobody would have thought that she would with the birth of her only son who became Henry VII, found the Tudor dynasty and towards the end of her life was known simply as the King’s Mother and had her own regal signature.

I enjoyed all three of these biographies. I was struck by the women’s longevity, especially considering that Eizabeth Woodville churned out  babies at the rate of one a year for over a decade, with seemingly no ill effects. Maternity care seems to have gone backwards when you consider how many women died from infection after giving birth in Tudor times!

The book has some interesting photos of portraits and statues and has lovely endpapers, The Lady and the Unicorn, Musee National du Moyen Age, Paris.

The Lion of Justice by Jean Plaidy

Posted on by
2
The Lion of Justice cover

The Lion of Justice by Jean Plaidy is the second book in the author’s Norman Trilogy, but I haven’t read the first one, I don’t think that was a problem though. It was first published in 1975. She wrote under several pseudonyms including Victoria Holt.

I must admit that I was a wee bit disappointed with this one when I began to read it as the writing style seemed quite chunky when compared with more modern writers of historical fiction. There’s a lot of very obvious info-dumping, however I got used to the style and ended up enjoying it although I would only give it three stars.

Scottish princesses Edith and her sister Mary have been placed in a nunnery after the death of their mother Queen of Scotland. The nunnery is run by their aunt Christina who is determined that they will take the veil. The girls aren’t enamoured with that idea though and hope that they will be able to get married in the future, this incenses Aunt Christina the mother superior and she becomes more and more violent, especially towards Edith. So when some men from the royal court visit them they see their chance to escape. Edith hangs on for a son of the Conqueror. Henry is the youngest of that dead king’s sons, and is third in line to the throne. As you can imagine Edith is quite happy to change her name to Matilda as Henry asks her to. She’s of Saxon blood and the Norman Henry’s idea is that if he does become king marrying a Saxon will make him popular with the common people. But Henry is a philanderer and already has multiple illegitimate children, that’s all such a heart-ache for the young Matilda over the years.

Henry spends a lot of time in Normandy and when he’s not there he’s often in Wales with Nesta, his favourite other woman of long standing. Actually that part reminded me so much of another heir to the throne!

Anyway, I don’t think I will rush to read the other books in this trilogy but it was fairly entertaining.

Young Bess by Margaret Irwin

Posted on by
12
Young Bess cover

Young Bess by Margaret Irwin is the first book in a trilogy about Queen Elizabeth I of England. It was first published in 1944. I’ve been reading quite a lot of historical fiction recently, I think it’s because they take you well away from the worries of today and Covid-19 although having said that they do often mention plagues and fevers. I thought that maybe this book would be disappointing after reading The Mirror and the Light – but it wasn’t, I really enjoyed it and have ordered the next one in the series.

I’ve read a fair amount about the Tudor period but hadn’t read anything about the early life of Elizabeth, who was known as Bess and I was really pleased to read that Margaret Irwin was well known for the accuracy of her historical research.

The book begins when Bess is 12 years old and her father King Henry VIII is coming to the end of his life. Henry seems to have accepted that he will only have one son – the nine year old Edward to keep the Tudor line going and is rather dismissive of his two older daughters, both of whom have been deemed to be illegitimate.

Bess is very aware of what happened to her mother, Anne Boleyn. She’s keen to hear what her mother was really like from people who knew Anne. She realises that only her sickly half brother Edward and her sister Mary stand between her and the throne. But when Tom Seymour, brother of the late Jane Seymour begins to flirt with Bess and her step-mother Katherine Parr his actions incense those in the highest circles. They can see that he’s determined to grab power one way or another. It looks like madness but as his brother Edward Seymour had made himself ‘Protector’ of the young King Edward after the death of Henry, presumably Tom thought he had some protection himself. He couldn’t have been more wrong. This was a great read.

Again I had to resort to reading my copy of the Chamber’s Biographical Dictionary to remind myself what actually happened in the end to some of the characters in the book, I just couldn’t wait to see what happened next. I’m so looking forward to getting the second book in this series – Elizabeth, Captive Princess.

Bloodline – Wars of the Roses by Conn Iggulden

Posted on by
Reply
Bloodline cover

Bloodline – Wars of the Roses by Conn Iggulden is the third book in this series, it begins in Winter 1461 and two men have been given the scary and disgusting task of impaling the heads of Richard Neville – Earl of Salisbury, Richard – Duke of York, and his young son Edmund on spikes mounted above the Micklegate which is one of the gateways into the walled city of York. They had been ordered to do it by Queen Margaret after her troops won the Battle of Wakefield. Margaret is calling the shots as her husband King Henry VI is yet again too ill to carry out his duties as king. She’s determined to put an end to the ambitions of the rival families for the throne, but as was predicted by one of her victims – she just succeeds in making the surviving family members determined to make Margaret, Henry and their supporters pay for their actions.

If you don’t like reading about battles then this one won’t be for you as the whole book lurches from one battle to another although the descriptions aren’t usually too gory, and for me I found the intricacies of the armour, weaponry and battle tactics interesting.

This series has made the Wars of the Roses era so much clearer to me and I haven’t had to refer to the family trees at the front of the book too often. There are so many Edwards, Henrys and Richards though and of course their titles to contend with too. But I’ve already requested Ravenspur which is the fourth book in this series from the library so it won’t be too long before I’ll be reading that one.