Writing about the Plantagenets in The White Queen, Philippa Gregory has proven that she is more than a researcher relaying facts. With previous novels, such as The Other Boleyn Girl, Gregory has earned her reputation romanticizing the Tudors, having to fill in small historical holes with interpretation and dialogue. But writing about the Plantagenets, Gregory would have had much less of a historical base to work with, as there are fewer records relating to the earlier time-period. Thus, Gregory has been forced to rely more on her ability to tell a story and less on her fact-finding skills.
Fiction Novel With a a Base of Historical Facts
And she's told the story well. Centering the novel around Elizabeth Woodville and her family, Gregory has created a fiction novel based in fact that ebbs and flows with Elizabeth's fortune. Elizabeth, said to be a descendant of the water goddess Melusina, uses magic to convince King Edward to marry her in secret. From there, the lady-loving king announces his marriage at court and the former widow Elizabeth moves into the castle to take her place on the throne.
Once she's been through her Coronation, Elizabeth realizes that keeping her family in power is not going to be easy. Her husband, of the house of York, has recently dethroned King Henry, of the Lancaster House. But just because King Edward is in power does not mean he will stay there, and Gregory has created a novel that shows the impact that women have on the men of the time. While Queen Elizabeth schemes to keep her husband, and thus her sons, on the throne, Henry Tudor's mother also is hatching a plan to move her son and her family into power. The War of the Roses truly is a cousins war, and Gregory has done a great job of laying out how everyone on each side of the battle is related and attempting to usurp a family member.
Shifting Point of View to Tell About Battles Draws Away From Story
Throughout the battles, however, Gregory is constantly switching from first to third person point of view, which is confusing and disorienting for the reader. Detailing historical battles that occurred while Elizabeth, the narrator, was stuck in sanctuary would have been a difficult feat for Gregory, but it seems as if she could have relayed the facts to Elizabeth via a messenger, for example, which would have kept the same first person point of view, making the information more accessible and reader-friendly. Even if Elizabeth was not present, reading the details from her or from a letter rather than a third-person narrator would have been much less disorienting.
Gregory had similar problems in her previous novel, The Other Queen, about the captivity of Mary, Queen of Scots. The novel centered around Mary and Bess of Hardwick, yet all of the action took place at the battles, where the women and the narrators were not present. Credit should be given to Gregory for trying to solve the familiar problem in a different way, though she's not yet found the way that works for her.
Unsolved Mystery: What Happened to King Edward's Sons?
While the battles are raging in The White Queen, the main question of the novel becomes apparent: what happened to Elizabeth's two sons who were taken from her and placed in the tower? Gregory has shed new light on this historical mystery, which today is still unanswered, allowing the reader to hope that at least one of Elizabeth's young sons made it through King Richard's reign alive.
The White Queen is mystical and horrifying, magical and murderous, all the at same time. It is the first of three novels in Gregory's series about the Plantagenets and the Cousins' War, and the reader can only hope that the next two novels in the series (The Red Queen and The White Princess) will be as fresh and catching as the first.
The White Queen was published by Touchstone Books in 2009. ISBN: 978-1-4165-6368-6
Kristen Nichols - Kristen is a freelance reporter and copywriter covering Olympic and Paralympic sport for Suite101.com. Kristen's love of sport developed ...
