The White Princess
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4.4 • 9 Ratings
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- $15.99
Publisher Description
FROM THE BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF THE FAIRMILE SERIES, PHILIPPA GREGORY, COMES THIS COMPELLING NOVEL.
Somewhere beyond the shores of England, a Pretender is mustering an army. He claims to be brother to the queen, the true heir to the throne.
When Henry Tudor picked up the crown of England from the mud of Bosworth Field, he knew he would have to marry the princess of the rival house – Elizabeth of York – in an effort to unify a country divided by war for nearly two decades. His bride was still in love with his enemy, and her mother and all the loyal House of York still dream of their missing heir making a triumphant return.
Elizabeth faces a terrible dilemma: can she stand by a king whose support and courage are crumbling before her eyes? How can she choose between Tudor and York, between her new husband and the boy who claims to be her beloved lost brother. But is he the lost boy sent into the unknown by his mother, the White Queen, or a counterfeit prince? – a low-born enemy to Henry Tudor and his York princess wife?
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, author of The Other Boleyn Girl, is a superstar of historical fiction. Her newest book tells the story of Princess Elizabeth of York, the older sister of the infamous Princes in the Tower. Caught in an impossible situation, Elizabeth is betrothed to the man who captures the throne of England in battle and usurps her brothers as heirs to the monarchy. As always, Gregory brings dusty history to vivid life in this splendid novel.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In Gregory's fifth entry in the Cousins' War series, marriage unites the upstart House of Tudor with its long-time enemies, the declining House of York, to rule over volatile 1485 England. As Gregory envisions her, narrator Elizabeth of York sister to the princes imprisoned in the Tower, mother of Henry VIII, grandmother of Elizabeth I still loves the vanquished Richard III when she dutifully marries his triumphant challenger, Henry VII. The royal pair produces an heir and two spares but mistrust continues to abound, particularly between the two mothers-in-law, who are seemingly determined to fight the Wars of the Roses down to the last petal. Elizabeth must navigate the treacherous waters of marriage, maternity, and mutiny in an age better at betrayal than childbirth. Gregory believably depicts this mostly forgotten queen, her moody husband, and the future Henry VIII, shown here as a charmingly temperamental child. Something about the Tudors brings out the best in Gregory's portraiture. At this novel's core lies a political marriage seen in all its complexity, including tender moments, tense negotiations, angry confrontations, and parental worries over predictions that the family line will end with a Virgin Queen.
