The King's Curse
Cousins' War 6
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4.5 • 161 Ratings
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- £5.99
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- £5.99
Publisher Description
FROM THE BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF THE FAIRMILE SERIES, PHILIPPA GREGORY, COMES THIS RIVETING NOVEL ABOUT THE TUMULTUOUS LIFE OF MARGARET POLE
'Margaret's story is shocking, deeply moving… the depiction of Henry VIII's transformation from indulged golden boy to sinister tyrant is perfect pitched' Sunday Express
They trust her to watch the House of Tudor rise… Only she knows it will fall.
Heir to the Plantagenets, Margaret Pole, is a rival claimant to the Tudor throne. Buried in marriage to a loyal Tudor supporter, she becomes guardian to Arthur, the young Prince of Wales, and his beautiful bride, Katherine of Aragon.
But her destiny is not for a life in the shadows. Tragedy throws Margaret into poverty, yet the king's death restores her to a place at young Henry VIII's court, as a lady in waiting to Queen Katherine.
As the Tudor court sours, Margaret has to choose between her allegiance to the increasingly tyrannical King Henry, or to her friend, his abandoned queen. And Margaret is hiding a deadly secret… that a curse was cast on the Tudor line, and she is watching it come to pass.
Praise for Philippa Gregory:
‘Meticulously researched and deeply entertaining, this story of betrayal and divided loyalties is Gregory on top form’ Good Housekeeping
‘Gregory has popularised Tudor history perhaps more than any other living fiction writer… all of her books feature strong, complex women, doing their best to improve their lives in worlds dominated by men’ Sunday Times
‘Engrossing’ Sunday Express
‘Popular historical fiction at its finest, immaculately researched and superbly told’ The Times
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
Philippa Gregory's Inside Story: "It's the only novel where I asked them to put a man on the cover. And it's the only novel that takes Henry VIII from when I absolutely adore him, as a little boy, through to serial killer tyrant—and it shows how that happened.
"It was enormously cathartic to me to go through really all of the stages of his life from a kindly older woman observer, Margaret Pole—who in the end is also killed by him. She was very close to Catherine of Aragon.
“I met her first when I wrote The Constant Princess and she is Catherine's hostess really at Ludlow Castle, when Catherine marries Arthur. Margaret Pole is hugely important right back then. She's of course a Plantagenet, the daughter of George, Duke of Clarence, who drowned in the tower on the order of his brother, Edward, probably with the connivance of his brother, Richard. So, you're right back there to the family that I'm very interested in and familiar with. It's told by her, so that's a character that I have very, very deep connections with over many novels. And this was really a novel about her and her observation of Henry as the husband of her greatest friend. After her friend's death, watching him go through all the subsequent changes in his life and understanding him, I think, better than anybody.
“It is a ‘We Need to Talk About Henry" book. It's also vindication of my 'What do the women think?' approach. What are the women doing? Where are the women positioned in this? Because nobody else could understand Henry better than someone who was best friends with his first wife and was present right the way through to Catherine Howard.”
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Gregory adds to her Cousins' War series (after The White Princess) an illuminating portrait of historical figure Margaret Pole, Countess of Salisbury, whose royal Plantagenet lineage was both a blessing and a curse. Gregory's carefully researched story line begins in 1499 with Margaret in mourning for her brother Teddy, who was beheaded by King Henry VII because he was a rival for the throne. Margaret has already been "stuffed into obscurity," married to an ordinary knight with whom she's had five children. When Prince Arthur, the King's son and heir, marries Katherine of Aragon, Margaret becomes lady-in-waiting to the Spanish princess. When Arthur dies, Margaret loses her position; not long afterward, she is widowed and struggles financially. Matters temporarily improve for Margaret with the ascension of the new king, Henry VIII, who appoints Margaret governess to his daughter Mary. But the moody and volatile ruler also forces Margaret and her family to jockey for favor at court. Gregory moves confidently through a tangle of intrigue, revenge, and tyranny toward a shocking betrayal that brings Margaret face-to-face with the king's ire.
Customer Reviews
The kings curse
Great fantastic brilliant
Phillipa Gregory
A fascinating read on this interesting period in history. Clever and well written a real page turner on in my case a real thumb clicker as I read as an eBook!
The Kings Curse
As I've read and enjoyed all the other books in this series I was looking forward to reading this one and was not disappointed. It made me want to read the whole series again.