Book Review: The Lady of the Rivers

Upon reading Philippa Gregory's "The White Queen", one of the most interesting characters I came across was the mother of the queen, Jacquetta Woodville. My curiosity of her was triggered from the beginning when she used the thread in the river. My hopes of her life being written were answered when this book was released.

Three things I expected to read about in this book were her transition from a girl from the House of Luxembourg to Duchess of Bedford, to the wife of Richard Woodville; how the Wars of the Roses began; and how she ended up always being beside Queen Margaret of Anjou. The book was satisfactory on all three aspects. In her usual charm, the author managed to draw Jacquetta perfectly as she was depicted in history. The interesting bit of her life was how she used her ancestral inheritance from the water goddess into her Catholic beliefs. This was a contradiction given her beliefs.

Her love story with Richard Woodville interested me most because, for a woman of her stature, I could not understand why she married him. Reading her thoughts and her actions, I began to understand why. Jacquetta Saint-Pol was one of the daughters of the House of Luxembourg, a House of France proudly descended from a goddess. She witnessed how cruelty was against women who spoke out. Her friend Joan of Arc, a young maid advocating for the French throne, was killed as a witch for going against the English and saying she had a vision from God that France had its own rightful king, and it was not the English. Seeing as how women could be so easily subjected to the will of men, she took advantage of her power and status and asked to marry for love after the death of her first husband. I admired her for this because of her strength and will to do what she wanted. She took control over her life even though this was not acceptable for women to do in those times.


                                   

 

                                                                     The Cousins' War:

                                                                 The Lady of the Rivers

                                                                                  by

                                                                       Philippa Gregory



Jacquetta was a brave and wise woman. She endured her first husband's commands of seeing and using her gift for the benefit of the throne of England despite not knowing for herself how to do it. She was doing her duty of obedience, as all women that time were expected to do, while at the same time rebelling in her heart. She did not do this through any open overt actions. She did this in her mind as her concern for the throne of England drifted to her concern for her own happiness. This should be expected of a girl of seventeen. Still, I can't help but admire her discipline and discretion in all of this. She was a strong woman, but she had the discretion not to display it in front of a patriarchal monarchy. She, along with other highly placed women of the court, had to be discreet in using their power. I admire her above all the other women in her time for this because she was able to perform her duty to the queen while keeping strong to her principles. Above all else she displayed fierce loyalty to her queen despite opposing the latter's opinions on affairs of state and matters of the heart. She was never misplaced in any of those at any time, up to the time of her death. Her strength and her discretion made her the beloved character that she is in the book.

Despite the lack of historical records and studies, the author was able to create a very real and strong person of Jacquetta Woodville in this book. It may be that history remembers her only as the mother of Elizabeth Woodville, wife and queen of Edward IV. But through this book, and the other researches that would go along with it, her story can be told. Perhaps this version is flawed, and perhaps it does not tell what and why she was the way that she was in those times; but it is a good place to start on it. This book not only shed some light and insight into the life of possibly one of the greatest women and influences in the history of England, but it also shed some light into the history of women, and of our beliefs as well. Because of this, I would say this book is by far the best of the series of The Cousin's War novels.

One of my favorite lines of hers was from her conversation with her daughter Elizabeth. I even wrote it down for me to remember it:
"I believe that a desire a prayer and a spell are all the same thing. When you lose something precious, and you go to the chapel and you kneel before the little glass window of St. Anthony and pray to him the thing that you need, what are you doing but reminding yourself that you have lost something and you want it back? And  what is that but calling it back to you?And so when I pray, I remember where I left it, and go back to find it. Is that answer to prayer or is it magic?... The prayer is just the same as a spell, which is just the same as knowing your desire that calls the thing back to your mind, and so back to your hand..."

My only disappointment is that I should not have read it after having read the three novels published before it. Yes this one is a prologue and tells a story in a different timeline, but some of the intrigue and mystery of how their lives would end up was lost in me knowing how it would all end for them. Still, that does not take away from the fact that this is a marvelous and insightful read. 

That being said, I would recommend the reader interested in this series to read this one first so that you would not spoil your appetite for what is to come in the succeeding timelines.



Dani
April 19, 2014- 12:38pm
"... sometimes you show yourself only your own desires. And sometimes-- though very rarely-- you can put your heart in your own desires and bring them about. Take the dream and make it come into being."
                      -Jacquetta Woodville nee Saint-Pol, The Lady of the Rivers by Philippa Gregory