Weekly Reader Philippa Gregory Edition: The White Princess (The Plantagenet and Tudor Court Series Vol. V) by Philippa Gregory; Bridge Between Plantagenet and Tudor is Filled With Political Strife, Unhappy Marriages, and Royal Impostors

Weekly Reader Philippa Gregory Edition: The White Princess (The Plantagenet and Tudor Court Series Vol. V) by Philippa Gregory; Bridge Between Plantagenet and Tudor is Filled With Political Strife, Unhappy Marriages, and Royal Impostors




By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews




Spoilers: You would think that the time between the War of the Roses and the rise of Henry VIII and his six wives would be a peaceful reprieve between serious conflicts.

Well, The White Princess is a 500-page way of Philippa Gregory saying “No such luck.” In this book, we are treated to a royal marriage rocked by infidelity, marital rape and abuse, constant threats against the king, and an impostor who may be one of the missing Princes in the Tower.

The marriage between Elizabeth of York and Henry VII was supposed to be an end to the conflict of the War of the Roses and bring the feuding York and Lancaster Houses together. Gregory's writing shows that peace can sometimes be as much of a Hell as war.

To start with both Elizabeth and Henry have plenty of baggage they bring into the marriage. Historical documents say that Elizabeth and Henry's marriage while political, was fairly happy and contented. Gregory however takes a different tactic that is less historical and more fiction and drama. It's not accurate, but makes for interesting reading and plays on the threads that have already been woven from the narratives in the previous books in the series.


Elizabeth of York still grieves for her deceased uncle, Richard and very bizarrely is still in love with him. It's a bit discomforting to modern Readers for obvious reasons for Elizabeth to recall making love to her uncle. Not to mention in The Kingmaker's Daughter, Richard tells his wife, Anne that he only romanced Elizabeth and allowed rumors to spread so she would be considered spoiled goods for Henry. It is uncertain whether Richard in the previous book was telling the truth or lying to placate Anne's suspicions. Certainly, Elizabeth took it extremely seriously and loved him far more than he loved her.

It would be nice if we had gotten Richard's perspective so we could get some finality in this bizarre love triangle to learn what he actually felt about Elizabeth and whether they were as passionate as Elizabeth believed or as chaste yet manipulative as Anne believed. Failing that, I will stick with the motive in Sharon Kay Penman's The Sunne in Splendor where he never made love to Elizabeth, that the romance was all in the head of an infatuated young girl, and he took a mentor interest in her as a replacement for the brother that died and the nephews that disappeared.

Either way, Elizabeth enters her story as a starry eyed romantic with dreams of creating the perfect kingdom of Camelot. It is shattered as her idealistic dreams get crushed and she succumbs to an unhappy marriage and the political intrigue around her.

Henry also comes into the marriage equipped with extra baggage and this baggage makes him extraordinarily unlikable. In Henry, we see the results of Margaret Beaufort's single minded ambition to make her son King. We see a young man filled with ambition and paranoid suspicion of enemies who only trusts the people who made him king: his mother and paternal uncle, Jasper Tudor.

He spends a great deal of time consulting solely with his mother making her complicit in his various schemes such as raping Elizabeth before their wedding and arresting anyone who is affiliated with the Plantagenet family.

Henry repeatedly tests Elizabeth's loyalty by warning her not to contact relatives or friends who are about to be imprisoned, including her mother. The result is an emotionally abused Queen of England who has to remain silent for the sake of her family and eventually her children: Arthur, Henry, Margaret, Mary, and Edmund.

One thing that Elizabeth has going for her is that she has a lot of heart which she shows Henry when they are with their people. Since the previous volumes in the series involved the previous queens at war and Anne Neville had such a short time on the throne, we never got to experience any of the previous queens interact with their people apart from their military and staunchest supporters.

Oh in the White Queen, we see a few moments of Edward and Elizabeth's court being described as a merry court filled with music, intellect, and loyal courtiers but in the White Princess we experience more of that.

Elizabeth of York shows that she inherited her father's likeable kind nature in her interactions with her people. She greets subjects like old friends and assists the people with their problems. Now that the Cousin's War is finally out of the way it is nice to see a queen acting well...queenly.

As many characters describe her, Elizabeth inherited the York ability to make people love her, something that Henry lacks which he understands but is unable to feel. Elizabeth reveals this in a great confrontation with Margaret that she raised Henry to be a king not to be a good man and because of that, the people will only fear and maybe respect Henry, but never love him.

That distrustful nature plus the war-like nature in which Henry seized the throne are key factors as to why many of the people are so disgusted with the Tudor claim to the throne that they search for any Plantagenet survivors to take it. First, many supporters conspire with Teddy, the son of George Duke of Clarence and Elizabeth's cousin.

However, there are hints that Teddy is developmentally disabled and his involvement in conspiracies is brought forward resulting in him being sent to the Tower of London as well as the subsequent arrests of various members of Elizabeth's inner circle.

There are other claimants most prominently a young man named Perkin Warbeck. He claims to be Richard, the younger of the two Princes sentenced to the Tower. He is shuttled from Europe to Africa at first in hiding but then is chased off by a paranoid Henry.

In various countries, he convinces several rulers that he might be royalty. Even when he finally arrives in England “the boy,” as he is referred to by Henry, Elizabeth and their entourage, shows a great deal of courage, sophistication, scholarly learning, and a charismatic presence that would be possessed not only by any prince but particularly by the son of King Edward IV.

When Warbeck arrives in England, Henry is threatened by this man's personality and demeanor as the people see him as a better potential king. Elizabeth even notes that Henry may see the ruler that he might have been if he hadn't spent so much time in fear and exile, deprived of feeling any emotion. This challenge irates Henry so much that he manufactures Warbeck's escape so he can later lock him in the Tower of London.

Elizabeth unfortunately gets no moments alone with Warbeck so we do not get the potential brother-sister reunion, but he is still very present in Elizabeth's thoughts.
Warbeck’s beautiful wife cozies up to the king so she could win her husband's freedom. Henry is receptive and Elizabeth, who once openly dallied with the married former King Richard, now understands what it's like to be the other woman in that situation, the wife cast aside for a younger prettier model.

Elizabeth is also concerned towards Warbeck's cruel treatment from her bullying abusive husband and is anxious about the future of her family. She remembers the curse that she and her mother bestowed that the killer of her brothers would have a son and grandson that would die before they reached the throne, that there would be no healthy male heir, and that the line would end with a barren girl.

If Perkin Warbeck is in fact her brother, then his killer by definition is Henry Tudor (just as Prince Edward's killer was more than likely Margaret Beaufort, Henry's mother.). So the curse may in fact be enacted, not with the boy's disappearances from the Tower but by Warbeck's execution by Henry.

The queen is torn between her sympathies for the man who might be her brother and her own position and the future of her family, particularly her children. Does she speak out and appeal for Teddy and Warbeck's releases or does she remain silent and let no harm come to her children's lineage? She has to decide, is she a York or a queen?

The White Princess brings a finality to the Plantagenet family with The King's Curse feeling like a final death rattle. It brilliantly foreshadows the eventual horror that comes within the Tudor family through Henry VIII's multiple marriages, the ill health of King Edward VI, and the intense rivalry between Queens Mary and Elizabeth I. It's a fine bridge between the conflicts that had passed and reveals the conflicts to come.