The White Queen: A Novel Read online

  Again, there is no definitive evidence as to how the boys met their deaths, if they did, nor who gave the order; and, of course, there are still no bodies positively identified as those of the princes. I suggest that King Richard would not have murdered the boys, as there was little to gain and much to lose for him; and I don’t believe that Elizabeth Woodville would have put her daughters in his care if she had thought him the murderer of her sons. It seems also that she recalled her son Thomas Grey from the court of Henry Tudor, which perhaps indicates that she was disenchanted with the Tudor claim and allying with Richard. All this remains a genuine mystery and I merely add my suggestion to the many others, proposed by historians, some of which you can find in the books listed in the bibliography.

  I am indebted to the scholar Professor David Baldwin, author of Elizabeth Woodville: Mother of the Princes in the Tower, both for his clear and sympathetic portrayal of the queen in his book and for his advice on this novel, and I am grateful also to the many historians and enthusiasts whose studies are based on their love for this period, which I now share, and I hope you do too.

  More information about the research and writing of this book can be found on my website, PhilippaGregory.com, where there are also details of seminars on this book which I gave on tour in the UK, the United States, and worldwide, and on regular webcasts.

  BIBLIOGRAPHY

  Baldwin, David. Elizabeth Woodville: Mother of the Princes in the Tower. Stroud, Gloucestershire: Sutton Publishing, 2002.

  ———. The Lost Prince: The Survival of Richard of York. Stroud, Gloucestershire: Sutton Publishing, 2007.

  Castor, Helen. Blood & Roses: The Paston Family in the Fifteenth Century. London: Faber and Faber, 2004.

  Cheetham, Anthony. The Life and Times of Richard III. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1972.

  Chrimes, S. B. Henry VII. London: Eyre Methuen, 1972.

  ———. Lancastrians, Yorkists, and Henry VII. London: Macmillan, 1964.

  Cooper, Charles Henry. Memoir of Margaret: Countess of Richmond and Derby. Cambridge University Press, 1874.

  Crosland, Margaret. The Mysterious Mistress: The Life and Legend of Jane Shore. Stroud, Gloucestershire: Sutton Publishing, 2006.

  Fields, Bertram. Royal Blood: Richard III and the Mystery of the Princes. New York: Regan Books, 1998.

  Gairdner, James. “Did Henry VII Murder the Princes?” English Historical Review VI (1891) : 444–464.

  Goodman, Anthony. The Wars of the Roses: Military Activity and English Society, 1452–97. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1981.

  ———. The Wars of the Roses: The Soldiers’ Experience. London: Tempus, 2005.

  Hammond, P. W., and Anne F. Sutton. Richard III: The Road to Bosworth Field. London: Constable, 1985.

  Harvey, Nancy Lenz. Elizabeth of York, Tudor Queen. London: Arthur Baker, 1973.

  Hicks, Michael. Anne Neville: Queen to Richard III. London: Tempus, 2007.

  ———. The Prince in the Tower: The Short Life & Mysterious Disappearance of Edward V. London: Tempus, 2007.

  ———. Richard III. London: Tempus, 2003.

  Jones, Michael K., and Malcolm G. Underwood. The King’s Mother: Lady Margaret Beaufort, Countess of Richmond and Derby. Cambridge University Press, 1992.

  Kendall, Paul Murray. Richard the Third. New York: W. W. Norton, 1975.

  MacGibbon, David. Elizabeth Woodville (1437–1492) : Her Life and Times. London: Arthur Baker, 1938.

  Mancinus, Dominicus. The Usurpation of Richard the Third: Dominicus Mancinus ad Angelum Catonem de occupatione Regni Anglie per Ricardum Tercium Libellus, translated and with an introduction by C.A.J. Armstrong. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1969.

  Markham, Clements, R. “Richard III: A Doubtful Verdict Reviewed,” English Historical Review VI (1891) : 250–283.

  Neillands, Robin. The Wars of the Roses. London: Cassell, 1992.

  Plowden, Alison. The House of Tudor. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1976.

  Pollard, A. J. Richard III and the Princes in the Tower. Stroud, Gloucestershire: Sutton Publishing, 2002.

  Prestwich, Michael. Plantagenet England, 1225–1360. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 2005.

  Read, Conyers. The Tudors: Personalities and Practical Politics in Sixteenth Century England. Oxford University Press, 1936.

  Ross, Charles. Edward IV. London: Eyre Methuen, 1974.

  ———. Richard III. London: Eyre Methuen, 1981.

  Seward, Desmond. A Brief History of The Hundred Years War: The English in France, 1337–1453. London: Constable and Company, 1978.

  ———. Richard III, England’s Black Legend. London: Country Life Books, 1983.

  Simon, Linda. Of Virtue Rare: Margaret Beaufort, Matriarch of the House of Tudor. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1982.

  St. Aubyn, Giles. The Year of Three Kings, 1483. London: Collins, 1983.

  Thomas, Keith. Religion and the Decline of Magic: Studies in Popular Beliefs in Sixteenth and Seventeenth Century England. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1971.

  Weir, Alison. Lancaster and York: The Wars of the Roses. London: Jonathan Cape, 1995.

  ———. The Princes in the Tower. London: Bodley Head, 1992.

  Williams, Neville. The Life and Times of Henry VII. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1973.

  Willamson, Audrey. The Mystery of the Princes: An Investigation into a Supposed Murder. Stroud, Gloucestershire: Sutton Publishing, 1978.

  Wilson-Smith, Timothy. Joan of Arc: Maid, Myth and History, Stroud, Gloucestershire: Sutton Publishing, 2006.

  Wroe, Ann. Perkin: A Story of Deception. London: Jonathan Cape, 2003.

  Touchstone Reading Group Guide

  The White Queen

  For Discussion

  Discuss Elizabeth’s first few encounters with Edward and her motives for seeking him out. Do they marry for love? Did you find it surprising that Edward defied his mentor Warwick and upheld his secret marriage to Elizabeth? Why or why not?

  How does Elizabeth and Edward’s clandestine marriage change England’s political landscape?

  Anthony tells Elizabeth that she and Edward are creating enemies by distributing wealth to their “favorites, not the deserving” (Chapter 20). What are your thoughts on Edward and Elizabeth as monarchs? How adept is Elizabeth at playing the political game, both before and after Edward’s death?

  What is your view of Elizabeth as a daughter, a sister, and a mother? Her daughter Elizabeth says to her, “You love the crown more than your children” (Chapter 39). Does Elizabeth, in fact, place her ambition ahead of her children’s well-being? How does she regard her daughters versus her sons?

  Compare the Plantagenets and the House of York with the Woodvilles. What are the most apparent differences between the two families? What similarities do they share?

  Elizabeth makes some questionable moral choices, such as standing silently by while her husband and his brothers murder Henry IV and knowingly putting a page boy in harm’s way by sending him to the Tower in place of her son. Are her actions justifiable or not? How does she feel about the choices she made?

  What is the significance of the legend of Melusina? Anthony dismisses Elizabeth’s belief in Melusina and in her own mystical abilities as “part fairy tale and part Bible and all nonsense” (Chapter 29). Is he right, or are she and Jacquetta really able to perform magic? With the penalty for witchcraft being death, why do they take the risk? What unintended consequences are there of some of their actions?

  In what ways are women especially vulnerable during this tumultuous time? What power do women have? How do Elizabeth, Jacquetta, Cecily, and other female characters in the novel use their intelligence and influence?

  Elizabeth is aware of and even tolerates the king’s adultery. Why then does she take exception to his association with Elizabeth Shore? Why does Edward’s former mistress later come to the queen’s aid while she is in living in sanctuary?

  When the younger Elizabeth pleads with her mother to come to an agreement with Duke Richard, why