The Red Queen (The Cousin's War)

i have to hand it to miss gregory on this book it was far from what i thought it would be like. in the mini series we only get to see margart as an angry women who is set at all cost to have her son henry tudor as the king of england. she is an holier then though person who uses god to get her way. you really dont care much for her watching the mini series. in the book we see how margart became the women in history. at a young age she knew she wanted to be a nun and wanted to learn and go off to live in an convet. being a women in this times her choices did not matter. she has an arranged married at the age of 5, that her mother breaks off when she is 9 so that she can be betrothed to the tudor blood line and be the mother of a future king. at nine she is told she will marry a tudor at the age of 12. at 12 she is sent off to marry edmund tutor and to bare him sons to be line for the english throne. edmund is close to 30 and only wants margret to have sons with. she has a son after edmund is killed and she is barely 13. it is a difficult birth and she nearly dies. her mother then informs her she is to marry again in one year to another man in his 30s, i think henry stafford does love margart, but she is unable to recieve that love because she fills her divine mission from god is to have her son become the next king. she is forced to leave her son with jasper, her deceased husbands brother, whom she does come to love but can not express it due to she has no rights. not even the right to raise her son. stafford is good to margart even though she continues to cross him, a peacefull man at every turn to help jasper and to over throw the current king edward. when jasper is sent into exile her son is given to a york to raise, again margart has no say in her boys life. she prays hours daily and is devoted in her work that she is like joan of arc and it is her holy duty to deliver england from the yorks and back into lancasters hands. when lord stafford is killed fighting for york, margart enters into yet another marriage with lord stanly in hopes of him helping her to get into the kings good graces and getting her son back from exile where he is living with jasper. she is still plotting to get him on the throne. she feels that queen elizabeth uses her looks and is a witch and has trapped her husband into marriage and is envious of her , her entire life. in the end when king edward dies and king richard steals the crown from edwards boys. this giving us the story of the princes of the tower. after reading alot of history i do feel richard did not have anything with these boys deaths, but that margart ordered their deaths so her son would move up the chain to the crown. she used it as gods will. princess elizabeth is promised in marriage to henry tudor and as history is he know that tudor does defeat richard and becomes the first king of the tudor reign of england. we learn so much more about margart in this book and at times you feel so sorry for her, yet she steals that pity back by using god to ok her evil plotting acts on others. she killed two innocent children just so her son could be king and said it was gods will. i really enjoyed this better look into how margart became the person we saw in the white queen. i cant help but wonder if she had been allowed to raise her son and be with jasper would she still have hated as much and been so jealous of elizabeth. would the young prince edward had died or would he have become king. how would history of changed if we had never had the tutor reign. loved this book. if you want to know more of margart you will enjoy this book.

"The Red Queen" is the second in Philippa Gregory's "The Cousins' War" series, following the Plantagenet line as she previously did so successfully with the Tudors. As in most of her other books, she focuses on the journey of one woman through the courtly intrigues of England's royal fortunes and royal families. For me, she has yet to outshine her own successes, "The Other Boleyn Girl" and "The Boleyn Inheritance." I did like this volume more than its companion, "The White Queen. The narrator of the "The Red Queen" is Margaret Beaufort. We begin with her as a child, a child soon to be wed for political gain. The chapters of Margaret's transition from child to wife to mother are conflicted, watching a little girl forced into her marriage bed with a man she barely knows and then enduring a very difficult pregnancy. Her role as brood mare is clear. Early in the book, Margaret's faith, her saints' knees, her fascination with Joan of Arc, add up to an emotional story. She is still half a child, dreaming that her son, a Tudor, will become the King and that she will sign her name, Margaret R, Margaret Regina, the King's Mother. that she loses this husband early is a seeming blessing to Margaret. Gregory writes well of Margaret's fierce love and ambition for this child and the growing influence of her brother-in-law, Jasper Tudor. Eventually, the plague takes her husband, and Margaret remarries to Sir Henry Stafford, she is astounded to be treated well, to have a man who is gentle with her and thinking of her comfort. If only she could take him to heart in the same way. . . Gregory knows the voice when she writes of envy, jealousy, and selfishness. As Margaret's machinations grow, she endangers her husband, her son, and herself. She is dedicated only to the Tudor line, the idea of becoming the Tudor King's Mother. She cannot abstain from her own desires, involving herself in rebellion and revolt to no good avail and to the detriment of thousands of men at war. She remarries after losing Henry to a battle wound. This part of the book is also well-written, with Margaret's pride and selfishness overwhelming and trivializing Henry's condition. Even as he lies dying, she is plotting. (History is history; this should not be seen as a spoiler, I hope) Her next marriage takes her son closer to the throne; the little Princes, Prince Edward of Wales, and Richard III the heartbeats between "her boy" and the throne. How much can she do with her fellow conspirators to destroy what remains between her and her dream? The battle scenes are well choreographed. The simple beauties of the English countryside contrast with the excesses of human contrived fashion and beauty at court and disgusting gore in mud and blood on the battlefield. Gregory puts us into the shoes of a flawed protagonist and untangles the web of York vs. Tudor history. I found a few odd comparisons (Thomas Gray's line, written in 1742 "a flower that wastes its sweetness in the desert air" and "what's done is done" from Shakespeare's "Macbeth,") and the repetition of the word "turncoat" was driving me a little crazy in the latter third of the book, but still, I admit it. I love the ease of reading history I already know through the voices Gregory creates.

Once again, my favorite author knocks it out of the park with her wonderful ability to tell a great story. If you want to know the ins and outs of Plantagenet and Tudor history, Philippa Gregory is a must read. The Red Queen is the story of Margaret Beaufort, the grandmother of King Henry VIII. From page one to the last sentence in the book, Philippa Gregory takes you on a journey where you'll experience the fascinating life of one of history's most iconic queens. Nothing about Margaret Beaufort’s life was easy and the author lets you in on all the wonderful and interesting details about her life. For all those who love historical fiction, I highly recommend this book.

Loved the book!

O livro é muito bom, assim como todos da Phillipa Gregory. Para quem leu The White Queen, você espera mais da personagem principal do Red Queen. Ainda assim, é um livro muito bem construído que prende a atenção do inicio ao fim.

Very informative couple not always recognise when true/fiction Although would have liken numbers after referring to names, such as Richard I etc Snowed the strength of woman in such a distant period of time

It must have been a challenge to write from the point of view of such an unlikable character, although I spent a lot of the book feeling sorry for Margaret. Shunned by her mother, married off at twelve, nearly dying of childbirth at thirteen, and used as a pawn in chess, like many women of reasonably high birth at the time. Margaret triumphs and is defeated and humiliated and triumphs again. I loved the mockery from her third husband, Thomas Stanley, who pointed out that if she were really a woman of love, she would have joined her son and Jasper in exile. But she stuck to what she thought was God’s plan and of course, ultimately succeeded. Since most of the book is from Margaret’s POV, a lot of the information is told to us through letters and conversations. That’s with the exception of the epic final battle, which was thrilling despite me knowing the outcome, and bumped this rating up to 3.5. Margaret, bitter and jealous of the beloved Elizabeth Woodsville (the awesome main character of the previous book, The White Queen), pious to the point of nauseating, and thoroughly deserving of many of the things that happened to her (no spoilers though). Another historically rich and interesting tale by Philippa Gregory. I’ll be buying the next one.

Comme toujours, j'ai été emballée par le talent de Philippa Gregory. Ce livre permet de mieux comprendre l'histoire d'Angleterre (ici, la naissance de la dynastie des Tudor). Bravo pour le point de vue croisé avec l'ouvrage précédent (The White Queen). Bravo pour avoir réussi à rendre humaine une personnalité si austère. Bref, formidable (comme d'habitude !!).

It was a brilliant read