Published by Simon & Schuster
Philippa Gregory, the author who brought us Elizabeth the White Queen, Margaret the Red Queen and made us fall in love with Anne Neville’s husband Richard III, now introduces us to Margaret Pole, Countess of Salisbury.
Margaret Pole, Princess Margaret of York, was the daughter of George, Duke of Clarence and Isabel Neville, and niece of King Edward IV and King Richard III, but her life changed in 1485 when Lancaster heir Henry Tudor came to the throne and ended Plantagenet rule. Her cousin, Elizabeth, The White Princess, married Henry while Margaret married Tudor supporter Henry Pole, before becoming Lady-In-Waiting and life-long friend to Catherine of Aragon and Lady Governess to her daughter Mary.
The book follows the rise and falls in Margarets’ eventful life. She is tragically widowed with five small children and no money, though when Henry VIII comes the the throne, her fortunes improve again. She then sees the fall of Catherine, then Anne Boleyn, then the decline of the Tudor court as the King slowly became a paranoid, fat, selfish tyrant. But eventually, aged 65, she is arrested, accused of treason and sent to the Tower of London. There was no trial, and in 1541 aged 67, she was brutally executed.
In Margaret, Phillipa Gregory has given us another fabulous heroine; a likeable, clever character who becomes one of the wealthiest women in the country. The reader is drawn into her passion for life, as we see her mange her lands and properties, and look after her family and servants.
Her life, and this book, is a emotional soap opera full of love, joy, hope, betrayal, tragedy. When’s the TV Series…?