Book Review: The Red Queen

                    "A woman of sense would always marry only for the improvement of her family.  
                               Only a lustful fool dreams every night of a marriage of love."
                                                                                     - Margaret Beaufort, The Red Queen


Margaret Beaufort was a woman who truly believed that she was a chosen child of God. She devoted her childhood and much of her life into hearing and obeying the will of God. Spending much of her life in prayer and solitude, she came across a dream that her son will be the rightful king of England. Believing this to be the will of God, she undertook every measure possible to make sure that nothing but this ambitious vision would be the future of her son, of England, and of her life.

From her childhood, she had been a sheltered girl. She spent most of her days kneeling in prayer and transcribing them from one language to another. She had a passion and enthusiasm for learning, a first of girls from her time. Because this was an unlikely behaviour for a lady in those days, her mother often reprimanded her of the dozens of questions she had on matters concerning her. This, I think is an admirable trait from her that was just out of her own time. However, though her thirst for knowledge is admirable, her selfish interests which she coats with the will of God for her have lead her down the wrong path of judgment.

As you would read from the novel, and probably in many of her historic biographies, she has called herself a child of God and that God speaks to her through her prayers. And because she sees the will of God, this must happen under any circumstances, regardless of the costs. In mirror to her admirable feminist trait, her devotion to God has seems to have led her astray instead of down the righteous path. From this depiction of her character, we will see how the greatest mystery of English monarch history was unveiled. Her obsession over her son's inheritance to the throne became, as she states, her calling as it is the will of God. And she continually compares herself with Joan of Arc. Because of these, she was lead to order the death of the princes in the tower, with the thought that her son is the rightful heir, as it is the will of God. It is a very skewed perspective to come from someone who calls herself a devout Catholic. I do not think thee character in the book realized that because her judgment was so clouded with ambition. She went as far as even passing on the blame to others, washing her hands clean of the act-- thus being the next Poncious Pilate.

Though her character was very distasteful, the people she encountered were a joy to come across again in this book. In its predecessor The White Queen, we were introduced to a host of these characters already but they were not really that memorable. Having them become central players in this book gives us a better perspective of who these people really were and how they acted in the time of the Wars of the Roses. In short, these two books acted in juxtaposition of each other. This book began in an earlier date, but merely to illustrate the mindset of the narrating character whose perspective we take.

Among these characters that were a treat to read about were her two husbands: Sir Henry Stafford and Sir Thomas Stanley. Sir Henry Stafford, I admire because despite being her husband when she was only fifteen, he treated her with great respect-- much more than she deserved in my opinion. As well, he was a worldly thinker. Margaret despised him for not going into war for their House of Lancaster and fighting for the cause of her son. But what she failed to completely see was his perspective on the matter, which is the same as the perspective of the commoners. He was tired of these wars and would rather fight for the usurping House of York under which England successfully thrived. No bloodshed happened for the sake of seating a king, and the English were kinsmen once more. Margaret could not see this because, as mentioned, she cared only for what she thought was the will of God. I admire Sir Henry Stafford for his worldly view. I admire him for being so warm and generous despite her unpleasant attitude towards him. Most of all I admire him for his thoughtfulness.

Sir Thomas Stanley, on the other hand, I admire for his techniques and strategy. They may not be as straight as a path should be, but they get him to come out on top always. Properly nicknamed by people as "the fox" he ans his family have the motto "Sans Changer", which many of the characters took to mean never changing their loyalty and allegiance. But upon being introduced to the character, you will see that this is true with regard for their family's own interest alone. Then again, aren't all these only about personal interest really? This was one thought I came across when I found some of the characters' actions tried to punish the Stanley's for their questionable allegiance(s). I would not do that to them because I think what they did is merely a strategy that none of the turncoats would do for fear of being discovered. In essence I think they are also turncoats,but the only difference is the Stanleys are very good at keeping that thought to themselves.

The Cousins' War Series

The Red Queen
by
Philippa Gregory

I came across several reviews of the book calling out Ms. Gregory for the horrid way that the character was. They mostly say that they despise Margaret Beufort for being a selfish little b*itch who hinks she is called upon by God to do His will. I would have to agree that I ended up loathing her character as well, especially after confirming that in this story line she ordered the deaths of the princes. However, I would not bash on the author. Instead, Mr. Gregory if you end up reading this, I would like to congratulate you for successfully creating such a character. Because of the way her perspective was written did I realize how far-fetched she was from Elizabeth Woodville. Though both were driven by ambition, you could actually see the differences in their precautionary movements and their strategies. Where Elizabeth Woodville mostly took preventive and pre-emptive measures, Margaret Beaufort took offensive measures.

So to those claiming they disliked the book because of the character, that is only proof that the author was successful in bringing to life in our minds a historical figure that none of us could probably even create. I applaud you for that Ms. Gregory!

As to the form of the book, I was less impressed by this If anything really I would rate the book a three out or five mostly for the content. The narration was my problem. Though I would admit that most of these parts would be hard to play out if not through narration, I still expected more interactions and conversations. This was one of the reasons that I got a bit bored of the book and so it took me two more days longer to finish that with its predecessor. The only comment I have is that I wished it had more dialogue. But I do understand that because it ran in about the same timeline as The White Queen, not much more could be said. However, I was interested in knowing more about what she was doing in those times since Margaret Beaufort was always away form the court's eye. Or maybe that was the point of the lengthy narrations? Because she spent most of her time in solitude and prayer, she had not many people around her to converse with other than the servants, whom she thought lowly of. Perhaps that was it, or maybe not.

But despite this, I still found the book entertaining and engaging especially the parts of Jasper Tudor. :)


I cannot wait for this book to be made into Season two of the BBC series. I hope they do make this into Season two. Again, if you haven't heard, BBC is taking Ms. Philippa Gregory's The Cousins' War series and turning it into a mini-series for television.


Here's the latest trailer:

And a little behind the scenes footage:

Shout out!
To Ms. Philippa Gregory, I will continue to support your books and I dare say I am now an avid fan. I swear fealty to your novels. ;)






Dani
May 20, 2013- 2:49 PM
"A man with the best cause to be true, 
the most untrue creature living. 
A man who had everything he asked for. 
Never was a false traitor better treated."


                                   -Richard III, The Red Queen by Philippa Gregory