Book Description
THE COUSINS' WAR
Book One
Philippa Gregory, "the queen of royal fiction,"*
presents the first of a new series set amid the
deadly feuds of England known as the
Wars of the Roses.
Brother turns on brother to win the ultimate prize, the throne of England, in this dazzling account of the wars of the
agenets. They are the clants and kings who ruled England before the Tudors, and now Philippa Gregory brings them
to life through the dramatic and stories of the secret players: the indomitable women, starting with Elizabeth
Woodville, the White Queen.
The White Queen tells the story of a woman of extraordinary beauty and ambition who, catching the eye of the newly
crowned boy king, marries him in secret and ascends to royalty. While Elizabeth rises to the demands of her exalted
position and fights for the success of her family, her two sons become central figures in a mystery that has confounded
historians for centuries: the missing princes in the Tower of London whose e is still unknown. From her uniquely
qualified perspective, Philippa Gregory explores this most famous unsolved mystery of English history, informed by
impeccable research and framed by her inimitable storytelling skills.
A Conversation with Philippa Gregory
Q: For readers who love your books set in Tudor England, what would you like them to know about the agenets and the
House of York?
A: I suppose I'd like them to know that here is a family just as fascinating as the Tudors, perhaps more so.
Certainly, they are more complicated, more wicked, and more passionate--takers of great risk. I think people have been
put off this period because it has been so well studied by historians that it has been regarded as being just
about battles. But there is so much more to it than this! The history of the women of the period has been very neglected
because of this emphasis on battles and thus the male leaders.
Q: What appealed to you about using Elizabeth Woodville as the main character in a novel? In what ways do you
think modern women can identify with Elizabeth?
A: The things I discovered about Elizabeth in the first days of my reading about this period told me at once that
she would fascinate me, and she has done so. Her background as a descendant of a family who cl to be related to a
goddess was enough to have me absolutely enchanted straightaway. It is in the historical record that her mother was
widely believed to be a witch, and that charge was leveled at Elizabeth also. This is exciting enough, but it also
indicates that people were afraid of Elizabeth's power, and I am interested in powerful women. I think she will
fascinate modern women in the same way that many historical women strike a chord: despite so many changes in the world,
women are still trying to find happiness, manage their children, seek advantage, and avoid the persecution of
misogynists. As women of any time, we have a lot in common. Despite the amazing advances in the rights of women (and I
am so grateful for these myself), the struggle for women's freedom, independence, and the right to exercise power goes
on.
Q: Throughout the novel there are scenes relating the story of the goddess Melusina. Is this based on an actual
historical fable, or is it something you created for the novel?
A: The fable of Melusina is well known, perhaps to everyone, in its retelling as the story of the Little Mermaid
by Hans Christian Andersen and then in the Disney movie. As I say at the beginning of the novel, the legend of Melusina
goes far back in time, perhaps to the classical legends, perhaps even earlier. The fable was studied by Carl Jung;
Melusina has been identified as a form of the material of the world--the dark, watery element that combines with the sun
in the alchemist's “ wedding.” This is a potent myth, indeed, and I retell the story here in a way that speaks
to my characters and to me.
Q: “These are not chivalrous times; these are not the times of knights in the dark forest and beautiful ladies
in moonlit fountains and promises of love that will be ballads, sung forever” (page 22), you write in The White Queen.
Is there a tendency to romanticize history, both for writers and readers? How do you make sure to realistically portray
all aspects of the time period you're depicting, even the more difficult ones?
A: Yes, indeed. These are not chivalrous times. I suspect that no times have ever been chivalrous times. We
glamorize the past, and we romanticize it; we even look back at our own personal histories and cast a rosy glow or an
enhanced dark shadow over our own childhoods. I keep my writing grounded in realism by reading a great deal before I
start writing, by looking at the record with a critical eye, and by being skeptical of grandiose cls. Having said
that, I too find it hard to resist the charm of Edward or Elizabeth or the marvelous character Jacquetta or any of the
other powerful and interesting people who strove for themselves and for their families in these dangerous times. These
are not chivalrous or romantic times, but they are times of danger--and in such circumstances one sees both the worst
and best in people.
Q: What challenges, if any, did you face when writing about the battle scenes and the strategy, which was
often a crucial factor in determining who took the throne? Did you visit any of the places where the battles took place?
A: I became a researcher in history, which is not my natural home! I visited battle sites and I read long
and complicated descriptions of battles and the modern speculations. In the end I found myself absolutely intrigued and
fascinated by how the battles were lost and won by small events, even sometimes by luck. The mist at Barnet is a
recorded fact, and it was possible for me to weave it into the story of Elizabeth and her mother as well as to see it as
a determining factor on the battlefield. The three suns of Towton were both a real phenomenon and a powerful metaphor
for the troops. The history of battles is a central part to the story of the Cousins' War, and part of my task in this
novel and the others in the series was to take this history, as I take any other, and make it come alive in the novel.
Q: The e of Edward and Richard, the princes in the Tower, is a subject that has confounded historians for
centuries. Why did you decide to approach this aspect of the story the way you did? Is there evidence to suggest that
Elizabeth sent her son Richard into hiding and a page boy in his place to the Tower?
A: Part of my response to this story was simply emotional: I have a son of my own, and the thought of Elizabeth
losing both her sons was tremendously painful. So I confess a bias to wanting at least one to survive. Then there is the
historical evidence. A very interesting book by Ann Wroe, Perkin, suggested to me that the so-called pretender Perkin
Warbeck might well have been the surviving prince, Richard. Her case for it is very compelling, as others have suggested
too. There is other persuasive evidence that both boys were not killed as the traditional history (and Shakespeare)
suggests. Even the traditional history--of them being suffocated in their beds in the Tower and buried beneath a
stair--is filled with contradictions. If Perkin was Richard--and this is speculative history, as indeed all history
around this genuine mystery must be--then Richard must have somehow survived. How could this have happened? It seemed to
me most likely, not that he escaped from the Tower, but that he was never sent to it. His mother knew the danger her
older son was in, had herself seen Henry VI murdered in the Tower, and was highly aware of the danger to her sons. It
seemed to me most unlikely that she would hand over a second son when she had lost the first. The changeling page boy is
my invention, but the history of Perkin in Flanders is based on his own confession. His story will continue in the
series.
Q: Elizabeth's her says to her, “We are forming a new royal family. We have to be more royal than royalty itself
or nobody will believe us. I can't say I quite believe it myself” (page 63). How unlikely was it that Elizabeth
Woodville would become queen? How has she been remembered by historians?
A: Elizabeth's ascent to the throne is one of the great triumphs of a commoner and was considered so exceptional
in her own time that one of the explanations offered was witchcraft. It is really a triumph of unlikely events. How
unlikely that Edward, raising troops for a battle, would be diverted by a woman he must have met by chance? How unlikely
that he would offer marriage when he knew as well as Warwick that to secure his reign he must marry well, preferably a
European princess? How unlikely that even after a secret marriage he would honor his vows? It is a catalogue of unlikely
events, and the only coherent explanation is that Edward and Elizabeth fell in love at first and married for love.
Elizabeth, like many powerful and effective women, has been unkindly treated by historians. Some follow the gossip
against her at the time that begrudged her good fortune; some point to the alliances she made for her family as symptoms
of greed and self-aggrandizement. She gets little credit for surviving two periods in sanctuary, nor for her courage
during the siege of the Tower. She is like many women “hidden from history” in the phrase of historian Sheila Rowbotham,
and when her role is acknowledged she is often treated with very harsh criticism.
Q: Anthony Woodville, the queen's brother, seemed to be ahead of his time in regard to education and culture. What
more can you tell us about him? Was Elizabeth honoring his memory by becoming a patroness of Queens' College Cambridge?
A: Elizabeth took over the role of patron of Queens' College from her predecessor Margaret of Anjou, but her
interest in education and culture may have been inspired and would certainly have been encouraged by her brother, who
was a true Renaissance man: spiritual, martial, thoughtful, and innovative. He brought the printer William Caxton to
England and sponsored the first printed book; he was famous for his ability in the joust; and he was a loyal brother to
Elizabeth and a devoted uncle to her son. The poem I quote in the book was indeed the poem he wrote the night before he
died. We can only speculate as to the sort of man he can have been that he should spend his last hours on earth, not in
rage or grief, but in crafting a poem of such detachment and clarity.
Q: If you could go back in time and live in any of the royal courts you've written about, which one would it be and
why?
A: I would be absolutely mad to want to be a woman of any of these times. A Tudor or agenet woman was wholly
ruled by men: either her or husband. She would find it difficult to seek any education, make her own fortune, or
improve her circumstances. Her husband would have a legal right over her that was equal to his ownership of domestic
animals; and the chances of dying in childbirth were very high. If one could go back in time and be a wealthy man, these
would be times of adventure and rtunity but still tremendously dangerous. I think I would prefer the Tudor period to
diminish the danger of being killed in battle, but there were still regular plagues and foreign wars to face. I cannot
sufficiently express my enthusiasm for modern medicine, votes for women, and safe contraception.
Q: The younger Elizabeth emerges as quite a vivid and spirited character. Will we be seeing more of her in a future
book?
A: Elizabeth, the Princess of York, goes on to marry Henry VII and so is mother to a royal dynasty, just as her
her and mother hoped they were creating a royal dynasty. She is, of course, mother of Henry VIII, and her
granddaughter is England's greatest queen--Elizabeth I. Elizabeth of York will be the subject of the third book of this
series, to be called The White Princess. But coming next is the story of the mother of Henry VII, the indomitable
Margaret Beaufort, whom you may have glimpsed in this novel but who deserves a book all to herself. It is called The Red
Queen.