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3.88 AVERAGE
3.88 AVERAGE
This is 5 stars. Margaret Pole has been so overlooked but has probably lived the most interesting life. She served as lady-in-waiting to her beloved cousin, Elizabeth of York and to both of her nephew's same wife, Katherine of Aragon. She tutored and basically raised two kings of England, King Arthur and King Henry VIII. She lived in extreme poverty and wealth, falling in and out of favor in a very tumultuous time of history. Her own father vyed for the throne of England when her uncle was King which ultimately made her father a traitor and die. Her brother died just for existing and because he could be an heir to the throne of England. Maggie is clever and cautious. She's someone you know. She's rebellious. This is the best book in the series. It feels like everything lead to this moment and it paid off.
dark
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
I never thought that Margaret Pole would be as Interesting as she is. What is great about this novel is that you see the whole life of the first three ives if Henry. Margaret outlives them all!
I write this review as an avid Philippa Gregory fan, and a person just slightly obsessed with the Tudors. I have read every book in this series now, and while there were some I did not enjoy, such as the Other Queen and the Kingmaker's Daughter, I found this one highly enjoyable.
This book follows the point of view of Margaret Pole, a Plantagenet Princess, married to a nobody to reduce her claim to the new Tudor throne. I enjoyed seeing King Henry VIII from this relative outsider perspective. We obviously all know King Henry's story, but it was interesting to read the story from a viewpoint which showed the effect on the country itself, and the more common people, than just him and his wives.
Margaret's tragic story is very well-portrayed, and I recommend this book to lovers of this series.
This book follows the point of view of Margaret Pole, a Plantagenet Princess, married to a nobody to reduce her claim to the new Tudor throne. I enjoyed seeing King Henry VIII from this relative outsider perspective. We obviously all know King Henry's story, but it was interesting to read the story from a viewpoint which showed the effect on the country itself, and the more common people, than just him and his wives.
Margaret's tragic story is very well-portrayed, and I recommend this book to lovers of this series.
I wasn't thrilled with this book as compared with some of the others in the series. Philippa Gregory, in her afterword, discusses how she sees how Margaret Pole could have been behind a web of treasonous plots and this book does put her at the center of a lot of it. I think the portrayal of Margaret in this work, showed her as someone who was in fact committing treason, rather than someone who stood up for her beliefs in the church and was martyred and later beatified for it.
The broad sweep of this story is familiar - Katherine of Aragons marriage to Arthur Tudor and then his brother Henry, Henry VIII divorcing Katherine, marrying Anne Boleyn and then having her executed, the brief reigns of Jane Seymour and Anne of Cleves. But it takes as its theme the story of the Plantaganet family during the Tudor years. This really helps capture the growing tyranny and madness of Henry VIII, and the final segment of the book creates a huge amount of tension as he seeks the destruction of the previous royal family. The ending is really something.
More like 2.5.
I didn't share a lot of the complaints that people had about this novel (and indeed, the other novels in this series). The theme of "the king's curse" didn't strike me as overly intrusive; it was mentioned a few times at the beginning of the book, and then it was muttered about with each new stillbirth/miscarriage, but otherwise it wasn't given an inordinate amount of attention, or even really the focus that it could have had as the title of the book. Which was fine - I think "the king's curse" was addressed more thoroughly in [b:The White Princess|12326627|The White Princess (The Cousins' War, #5)|Philippa Gregory|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1361537023s/12326627.jpg|17305270].
I also didn't mind the characters saying things like "my cousin, the queen," because you know what? They all have a million cousins and half of them have the same name, so yeah, I don't care if people wouldn't actually specify that stuff in real life, because otherwise I would have no idea who they were talking about. I can see how it would seem patronizing if you've studied the period extensively, but frankly, it was necessary for me. Heck, sometimes I still couldn't figure out who they were talking about.
Now that I've finished the Cousins' War series, I can safely say that a far more accurate title would have been "Men Are Terrible." I mean, Jesus Christ. These poor women. And Henry VIII. Wow. What a fucker.
I didn't share a lot of the complaints that people had about this novel (and indeed, the other novels in this series). The theme of "the king's curse" didn't strike me as overly intrusive; it was mentioned a few times at the beginning of the book, and then it was muttered about with each new stillbirth/miscarriage, but otherwise it wasn't given an inordinate amount of attention, or even really the focus that it could have had as the title of the book. Which was fine - I think "the king's curse" was addressed more thoroughly in [b:The White Princess|12326627|The White Princess (The Cousins' War, #5)|Philippa Gregory|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1361537023s/12326627.jpg|17305270].
I also didn't mind the characters saying things like "my cousin, the queen," because you know what? They all have a million cousins and half of them have the same name, so yeah, I don't care if people wouldn't actually specify that stuff in real life, because otherwise I would have no idea who they were talking about. I can see how it would seem patronizing if you've studied the period extensively, but frankly, it was necessary for me. Heck, sometimes I still couldn't figure out who they were talking about.
Now that I've finished the Cousins' War series, I can safely say that a far more accurate title would have been "Men Are Terrible." I mean, Jesus Christ. These poor women. And Henry VIII. Wow. What a fucker.
I loved this book, because I got to learn about another historical figure during the Tudor period. It was nice to see another royal family and their struggle under the Tudors. I was very sad at the end to see that, like many other people of that period, she was beheaded. I know that Henry VIII beheaded many, but I was hoping she would get through it. Overall another wonderful book by Philippa Gregory.
Long. And for some reason this felt longer than the others in this series.
Margaret of York is not a sympathetic person, in part because she's always so sure that as a Plantagenet she's better than anyone else. If I had to read one more time about her extensive, fertile family... or how many of them died thanks to the Tudor upstarts... UGH. It also didn't help that she had far too many instances of gritted teeth and clenched stomach. Her attitude towards her son Reginald was difficult to take, too. Of course, all of this is speculation on Gregory's part, as we don't have a whole lot of evidence about exactly what the Pole family did or didn't do (all those burned letters can't be reformed, can they?). I did like that she falls into the "Richard III didn't kill the boys in the tower" camp, placing the blame on the Tudors. And, of course, the whole era is just filled with intermarriage, backstabbing and betrayal, which makes for interesting reading. Luckily there were family trees interspersed to help sort out who and what happened to them.
ARC provided by publisher.
Margaret of York is not a sympathetic person, in part because she's always so sure that as a Plantagenet she's better than anyone else. If I had to read one more time about her extensive, fertile family... or how many of them died thanks to the Tudor upstarts... UGH. It also didn't help that she had far too many instances of gritted teeth and clenched stomach. Her attitude towards her son Reginald was difficult to take, too. Of course, all of this is speculation on Gregory's part, as we don't have a whole lot of evidence about exactly what the Pole family did or didn't do (all those burned letters can't be reformed, can they?). I did like that she falls into the "Richard III didn't kill the boys in the tower" camp, placing the blame on the Tudors. And, of course, the whole era is just filled with intermarriage, backstabbing and betrayal, which makes for interesting reading. Luckily there were family trees interspersed to help sort out who and what happened to them.
ARC provided by publisher.