The White Queen

The White Queen is one of the novels in British historical novelist Philippa Gregory's "Plantagenet and Tudor" series, told in the first person by Elizabeth Woodville, queen of King Edward IV of England. The story begins in the spring of 1464: the Wars of the Roses are nearing their end, and the young Edward IV meets on horseback the widow Elizabeth Woodville, then called "the most beautiful woman in England," and consequently defies the marriage arrangements of his powerful minister Warwick and secretly marries her. The author does not write this commoner queen as a simple heroine of romance; instead, she faces the fierce struggle between the houses of Lancaster and York over the throne while striving to protect her children and her family's position. In Gregory's portrayal, the Woodville family believes itself descended from the water goddess Melusina, so the book adds threads of prophecy, curse, and witchcraft. These fantastical elements blend with historical fact, adding a mysterious atmosphere to court intrigue. The latter part of the novel touches on the famous historical mystery of the "Princes in the Tower"; the fate of the two princes after Edward IV's death becomes the question left suspended throughout the book. Readers can follow Elizabeth through the ups and downs of fortune from commoner widow to queen consort, and also see how marriage, bloodline, and power became entangled in the fifteenth-century English court.