Weekly Reader Philippa Gregory Edition: The Red Queen (The Plantagenet and Tudor Court Series Vol. III) by Philippa Gregory; The Lancaster Side of the Cousin's War With A Different But Also Memorable Protagonist
By Julie Sara Porter
Bookworm Reviews
Spoilers: One interesting thing with Historical Fiction is that you can get multiple perspectives from the same point in history. Like Rashomon, different characters will give their own versions of the events based on their background and relations to the events in question. These multiple points of view aren't necessarily wrong, after all what really is fact and truth when history is written by the winners? But they are how the characters see them.
Philippa Gregory had previously told of the War of the Roses from the Yorkist point of view from Elizabeth Woodville, wife of King Edward IV and protagonist of the White Queen. In Lady of the Rivers, Elizabeth's mother, Jacquetta of Luxembourg's allegiance shifted from the Lancasters when she was a Lady in Waiting to Margaret d'Anjou to York when her husband and son supported the Yorks and her daughter plead for mercy in front of King Edward IV.
Now in her third book in the Plantagenet and Tudor Court Series, The Red Queen, Philippa Gregory gives us the Lancastrian side from the point of view of someone who is a very different lead character from Elizabeth Woodville, but just as memorable in her own way: Margaret Beaufort, cousin to King Henry VI and mother to King Henry VII.
When she is a little girl, Margaret believes that she is headed for a life of spiritual piety.
Unfortunately, her opportunistic relatives particularly her cold mother have other ideas. She is arranged to marry Edmund Tudor, Earl of Richmond. The marriage is brief as Edmund is a young man who is more interested in hanging out with the guys than being a husband. He is killed but not before Margaret gives birth to a son, Henry Tudor.
After his birth, Margaret has a vision in which Henry, her son, is God's anointed king. She never wavers through that vision not during the War of the Roses. Not during her two subsequent marriages to Sir Henry Stafford and Thomas Stanley, Earl of Derby. Not during the reigns of King Edward IV and King Richard III, and not when she is separated from her son as he is sent in exile to be raised and trained by his paternal uncle, Jasper Tudor.
In writing The Red Queen, Gregory made a conscious effort to make Margaret Beaufort as different from Elizabeth Woodville as possible. In a way, it reminds me of the approach Marion Zimmer Bradley gave to Guenivere and Morgaine in Mists of Avalon by making them two different women with different religions, motives, and approaches but making them very strong forceful characters in their own individual ways. Gregory pulls the same feat here.
While Elizabeth Woodville is from a family rooted in their Pagan past, Margaret is clearly a die-hard Christian. Even as a child, she is happy to have “saint’s knees” (wounds from kneeling in prayer so much) and has ambitions to become an abbess or after she hears about Joan of Arc, a warrior for God. Her whole life is driven by the desire to do something significant in the name of her God.
While Elizabeth Woodville has loving parents who encourage her to put herself forward and brazenly approach King Edward, Margaret’s home life is less cozy. Her father committed suicide before she was born and her mother has so little affection for her daughter that when Margaret goes through a troubled labor giving birth to Henry, her mother insists that they save the baby and let Margaret die. Margaret's unloving home could be one of the factors why she is so devoted to her religion. Finding no love from her earthly mother and father, she seeks it from her Heavenly Father.
Margaret's role she is told is severely limited to being the wife of one powerful man and the mother of another. While she acquiesces to the role, like her rival Elizabeth Woodville, Margaret Beaufort finds a way to use it to her advantage. Once she believes that Henry, her son, is chosen to be the next king she visualizes herself as Queen or rather Queen Mother singing her name “Margaret R,” as in Margaret Regina or Margaret Richmond.
Throughout the book, Margaret shows single mindedness in her goal of making her son King so everything else is secondary. After Edmund Tudor’s death, she clearly falls in love with his brother, Jasper and vice versa but they don't act on their emotions because Margaret feels that she has a higher purpose. Jasper is also sent away to raise Henry in exile and to make sure the boy fulfills his eventual duty as King. Margaret is so driven by her desire to make Henry king that she foregoes a maternal relationship with him and is not physically close to him until he reaches adulthood.
During the War of the Roses, Margaret is firmly on the side of the Lancasters because of Henry VI’s spiritual faith which she doesn't realize often prevents him from ruling since he spends more time in prayer or in a coma than making decisions. Still Margaret is committed to that side to the point where she shames her second husband, Stafford into fighting the Yorks which for a long time he resists. She never lets go of that image of being Joan of Arc fighting for her God if only from the side lines.
The only husband who is a match for Margaret's steely resolve is Stanley. Unlike Margaret's unwavering devotion to her side, the Stanleys are known to turn coats for whoever is winning, often keeping the Yorks and Lancasters, as well as Margaret, guessing. Stanley is the only one to call Margaret's spiritual belief into question by asking whether it is God's will or really hers that her son is to be King, a question that she cannot answer.
Stanley also is able to put many of her thoughts into action. After King Edward IV dies and his sons are put into the Tower of London, it is Stanley who reminds her that there are currently three obstacles in the way of her Henry becoming King and at least two of them are young defenseless boys and what is she going to do about it. Her answer is, of course, historical speculation but leads to a very possible outcome and eventually tragedies to come farther down the Tudor line.
Through Stanley's influence, Margaret does learn to compromise slightly when she realizes that she and Elizabeth Woodville share a common enemy in Richard III. Even though Margaret thinks Elizabeth Woodville is a witch and her daughter, Elizabeth of York, is a slut who is in love with her uncle, she willingly arranges the marriage between her son and Elizabeth's daughter. However, she clearly lets the younger Elizabeth know who's in charge. Though Elizabeth of York counters with a great comeback suggesting that she won't be so easily swayed and possibly foreshadows more potential trouble in the union between the two former rival houses.
The Red Queen presents a very different protagonist from Elizabeth Woodville. Like her predecessor, Margaret Beaufort is not always likable. She is militant, fanatic, and egocentric with her view of God and her destiny. But she is definitely unforgettable.
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