Education

Women of the Wars of the Roses

Historical Fiction and Fact

Many of us come to our love of history through historical fiction. Here are some fictional and factual accounts of the women of Britain's Wars of the Roses that you may enjoy.

The White Queen: A Novel (The Cousins' War)

Philippa Gregory takes on the Wars of the Roses, seen through the perspective of Elizabeth Woodville. This was truly a Cousins' War, among different branches of the Plantagenet family all descended from Edward III through the sons representing York and Lancaster.

Blood Sisters: The Women Behind the Wars of the Roses

Historian Sarah Gristwood features seven women who were key in the Wars of the Roses, showing how the events that transpired often pivoted around these women's actions and alliances. If you're looking for more history and less fiction, this may be the treatment for you.

The Women of the Cousins' War: The Duchess, the Queen, and the King's Mother

Honoring the real historical research required to write decent historical fiction, Philippa Gregory has here assembled three long essays on the first three featured women in her Cousins' War series. She wrote one of the essays, the other two are written by historians David Baldwin and Michael Jones. Together, they cover Elizabeth Woodville, Jacquetta (Elizabeth Woodville's mother), and Margaret Beaufort.

The Red Queen (Cousins' War #2)

Philippa Gregory here delivers a novel focused on Margaret Beaufort, married and giving birth and widowed at a young age, and pouring her energy into the future of her only child. The White Queen tells the story of the Wars of the Roses from perspective of the House of York; this from the perspective of the House of Lancaster.

The Kingmaker's Daughter (The Cousins' War)

Philippa Gregory's fourth novel in the Cousins' Wars series, this one focuses on Anne Neville. Both she and her sister Isabel are marriage bait, and their father has plans to marry them into the highest possible positions. How much was in her control and how much was not? We don't have diaries or other first-hand accounts, so we really don't know. This is historical fiction, so there's some re-imagining going on.

The Lady of the Rivers: A Novel (The Cousins' War)

I didn't really need to be reminded by author Philippa Gregory that this one's a novel; she takes quite seriously the legends of Jacquetta (mother of Elizabeth Woodville) as involved in witchcraft. Descended from a river goddess? Does this make the history more interesting? Less believable? You can be the judge of that.

Queen By Right: A Novel

Anne Easter Smith uses historical fiction to highlight the life of Cecily of York, a woman in the middle of the Wars of the Roses. She married Richard, Duke of York, the presumed heir to the throne, and partnered with him to manage the family's destiny.

Royal Mistress

By Anne Easter Smith. Jane Shore, "The Rose of London," was a mistress not only to Edward IV -- she was one of his favorite mistresses -- but also to his stepson, Elizabeth Woodville's son Thomas Grey from her first marriage. She was even accused of conspiracy against Richard of Gloucester who took on the role of Lord Protector after Edward's death. This historical fiction looks at the events of the time through her perspective.

Daughter of York: A Novel

One of Edward IV's sisters, Margaret, became a marriage pawn, and is sent to be the wife of the Duke of Burgundy to solidify continental support for England. Anne Easter Smith tells the story of this relatively-forgotten figure among the women in the saga of the Wars of the Roses, fictionalized but with attention to detail.

The White Princess (Cousins' War)

Available mid-2013. Philippa Gregory's fifth novel in the Cousins' War series, this one focuses on Elizabeth of York, daughter of Elizabeth Woodville and wife of the first Tudor king, Henry VII. Her marriage, as a York princess, to the Tudor king who represented the Lancaster side in the Wars of the Roses, was an opportunity to weave together the "cousins." Was she also a mistress of Richard III? Did she play a key role in the fate of the pretender Perkin Warbeck (who claimed to be one of the lost Princes in the Tower, and thus more legitimate a ruler than Henry VII)?

Elizabeth of York: A Tudor Queen and Her World

Available November, 2013. Alison Weir's treatments of medieval women have always satisfied; I expect this one will, as well. Daughter of Edward IV and wife of Henry VII, Elizabeth of York's life was full of contrasts and reversals -- and then recovery.