“The White Queen” by Philippa Gregory – The Endless Quest for the Throne

The more we distance ourselves from a certain past, the more we tend to simplify things about it, to the point where we have a naively neat and inaccurate representation of what happened. For instance, many people would like to believe that being rich and powerful in the 15th century ensured one a life free of troubles.

However, it is very possible that the world of politics and the rich was much dirtier and deadlier than it is today. In The White Queen by Philippa Gregory we are treated to that in all of its glory as we follow the life of Elizabeth Woodville who married King Edward IV to gain power and land. 

The story is basically taking place in the Court, as multiple hungry candidates for the throne are vying for power one against the other, playing a real game of chess where ultimately there are only two prizes possible: the throne, or death. To get the bad stuff out of the way, though Gregory’s book sure is noteworthy (more on that later) it does have a few flaws. 

To begin with, she goes back to the imagery of the water goddess Melusina far too many times, and though the descriptions of water are beautiful at first, the start to feel tired and cliché after a while. 

Second, for a historical novel the details on the characters’ day-to-day lives were quite sparse, which was not only disappointing in terms of learning but also did no favors to the somewhat stiff characters. Also, there are some inaccuracies in terms of how people were portrayed versus what historical documents tell us they were like, as is the case with Richard III’s description.

Now that we got that out of the way, time to move on to the things that made this novel worth reading. For starters, Elizabeth Woodville herself is a very interesting, deep and multi-layered character that feels quite alive. All the schemes, whether they be minor or major, hatched up by the characters are quite interesting to watch unfold, especially if you are a fan of wars with a more intellectual nature. 

Also, it touches on the War of the Roses (a dynastic war between two rival branches of the Royal House), a very interesting topic in itself that doesn't lack peculiar subjects to be discussed. In addition, we even get a fictional account of what actually happened to the Princes of the London Tower, one of the greatest mysteries to plague historians.

All in all, it seems as if Gregory was more interested in writing a novel based on the War of the Roses rather than re-telling its events, and the whole, it works quite well at retaining your attention and making you turn the pages. 

Unless you are looking for absolute historical accuracy, then I highly recommend you give The White Queen a try, for in my opinion, it is one of the more interesting novels about this time period to come out recently.

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Philippa Gregory Personal site Philippa Gregory is a historical novelist of British origins who has been officially a writer since 1987. Without a doubt her best-known work is The Other Boleyn Girl, which netted her the 2002 Romantic Novel of the Year Award, given out by the Romantic Novelists’ Association.