Thursday, August 12, 2010
The Red Queen
By one of my favorite authors, The Red Queen details the story of Margaret Beaufort, heir to the Lancastrian house at the time of the Wars of the Roses, York vs. Lancaster, for the British throne in the 1480's. From the birth of her son, Henry Tudor, to the battle at Bosworth Field in 1485, Margaret fights for her house and her son to rule England. Was she responsible for the death of the York princes in the Tower of London? Did she marry Lord Stanley only to gain position for the long battle to the throne? Did she love Jasper Tudor, younger brother of her husband Edmund? Like her ancestor Katherine Swynford, her life was full of intrigue, romance, defeats and victories. While this book is a novel, recurring themes of historical fiction ring true for Margaret Beaufort. If you like this book, read The White Queen by the same author, or the first (and some say greatest) book of historical fiction/romance, Katherine by Anya Seton.
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I have disliked most of the work by this particular author--it's a historian's bias, of course. She takes a lot of liberties with the history that my inner historian cannot entirely forgive (at times, she doesn't seem to know very much about the history at all). Margaret Beaufort is an interesting character, though. Definitely novel-worthy.
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