Elizabeth Kerri Mahon

One could say that the story of Elizabeth Woodville is a Cinderella story.   Young widow meets handsome King; they marry despite opposition and live happily ever after.   Well as happy as one can be when the handsome king cheats on you constantly and eventually runs to fat after a life of indolence, and your brother-in-law is an asshole who keeps trying to depose your husband, and then your other brother-in-law steals the throne from your son and you have to hide in sanctuary until finally another handsome prince rescues you and marries your daughter.   It’s a different kind of fairy-tale, one that could only take place in Medieval England during the reign of the Plantagenets, the world’s most dysfunctional royal family. Let’s start from the beginning shall we? Elizabeth Woodville was born sometime in 1437, possibly in October, the eldest daughter of Jacquetta of Luxembourg, the Dowager Duchess of Bedford and Sir Richard Woodville.   Her parents’ marriage ha...

After writing six bestsellers about the Tudors and one about Mary, Queen of Scots, Philippa Gregory has now turned her attention to their predecessors on the throne of England, The Plantagenets. Her new book The White Queen (on bookshelves tomorrow if not already at Borders) tells the story of Elizabeth Woodville, a widowed beauty who captures the eye of the young King Edward IV of the House of York. Elizabeth marries him in secret and rises to become an ambitious and formidable Queen. Elizabeth and Edward's happy marriage (despite his frequent whoring around which Elizabeth accepts with a fortitude unusual for most women), works as a counterpoint to the frequent wars as Edward tries to consolidate his hold on the throne as the battles between the House of Lancaster and the House of York rage on. This is not the first historical novel to feature Elizabeth Woodville as a heroine. Rosemary Hawley Jarman as well as Jean Plaidy (Victoria Holt) have also mined this rich period of histo...