The Lady of the Rivers: Cousins' War 3

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Although Jacquetta is the main character, her character development is extremely weak, to say the least. Her inner feelings and actions never felt fully disclosed and understood, making her seem very one-dimensional. Moreover, many of the other female characters also felt very demeaned and ill-described. Joan of Arc was portrayed quite foolishly and Margaret of Anjou was even more annoying than usual. Margaret of Anjou is already “known” as being villainous but at least she has drama and depth. In The Lady of the Rivers, she just comes off as a spoiled teenager in a teen film. Plus, more of the book was about Margaret of Anjou than Jacquetta. I found this all to be disappointing because none of the characters were likable or encouraged support. Imagine a star-studded ensemble cast in a movie but with a terrible plot and poor acting. That is the best way to describe this book.

Repetition may be the most annoying feature of The Lady of the Rivers, but in my opinion the most fundamental problem with the novel was that far too many historical events are related to us through secondhand narrative and occur "offstage". Frequently, we don’t even get a scene where a character finds out this secondhand information through dialogue with others let alone experiencing it firsthand. Granted, Jacquetta is the novel’s first-person narrator and can’t have experienced every event herself, but even so, surely we can have scenes where she finds out for herself in "live" time? Instead Jacquetta just speaks directly to the reader in narrative and TELLS us what has been going on, on far too many occasions. It’s phrased in such a way that we have no clue how she herself heard about this. As a result I felt like I was asked to buy into an awful lot that I never saw for myself. This is boring. I want to SEE what’s going on, or at least find out at the same time Jacquetta does.

The Lady of the Rivers

For me, however, the novel’s biggest flaw was what was not inside it—Jacquetta’s later years. The most dramatic events of Jacquetta’s life, her being accused and exonerated of witchcraft, the murders of her husband and her son John, and her flight into sanctuary with her daughter, belong to this period, as does the controversial role the Woodvilles allegedly played in the trial of Sir Thomas Cook, but Gregory chose to end her novel well before these things occurred. It’s her novel and her choice, but I for one would have loved to have seen how Jacquetta reacted to the controversy her family’s sudden rise generated, how she fought the charges against her, and how she dealt with the murders of her husband and John. With this missing, the impression as we close the book (or turn off the Kindle, in my case) is that of a pleasant but rather milquetoast Jacquetta: Wendy the Good Little Witch. De regula, cand un barbat intrezareste un mister, e mai bine sa-l lasi nedumerit. Nimanui nu-i plac femeile inteligente. " If you read this book, do so with caution! Why? It's really good. And it's the first in a series of six books (with a seventh reportedly in the works). I read the second in the series, "The White Queen," first, and it's even better than this one. Married to the Duke of Bedford, English Regent of France, Jacquetta is introduced by him to a mysterious world of learning and alchemy. Her only friend in the great household is the Duke's squire Richard Woodville, who is at her side when the Duke's death leaves her a wealthy young widow. The two become lovers and marry in secret, returning to England to serve at the court of the young King Henry VI, where Jacquetta becomes a close and loyal friend to his new queen.

The rest of the novel takes us through their lives together which include no less than 12 children, the marriage of Henry VI to Margaret of Anjou, the beginning of the battles of the Cousins' War with Richard, Duke of York, and the eventual demise of Henry and Margaret with the rise of Edward IV of York. When the young and beautiful Jacquetta is married to the older Duke of Bedford, English regent of France, he introduces her to a mysterious world of learning and alchemy. Her only friend in the great household is the duke’s squire Richard Woodville, who is at her side when the duke’s death leaves her a wealthy young widow. The two become lovers and marry in secret, returning to England to serve at the court of the young King Henry VI, where Jacquetta becomes a close and loyal friend to his new queen. The Lady of the Rivers also suffers from rather simplistic use of language. The novel is full of subject-verb sentences, the simplest kind of sentence, and frequently the dialogue between characters felt far too anachronistic. Typos crept in, and I even spotted the occasional Twilightism (problems with the construction of the sentences which alter their meaning). I think a skill of a good historical novellist is to make the characters speak in a way that is authentic to the times, but their sentiments are entirely identifiable – they are modern-minded in some way, but speak in a period-appropriate voice and with period-appropriate attitudes – Philippa Gregory’s characters fail to achieve this. Jacquetta especially sometimes seemed far too modern in her ideas (Gregory really pushes heavily the militant feminist angle this time round) and at other times she seemed quite a simple character, almost foolish. I think reliance on character stupidity to explain an historical event is simply not an enjoyable thing to read compared to a complex but believable and smart motivation/explanation.

David Baldwin, Elizabeth Woodville: Mother of the Princes in the Tower, (The History Press, 2010), Genealogical table 4.

SO glad that I did ! The story of Jacquetta, Dowager Duchess of Bedford and mother to Elizabeth Wydville of "The White Queen," is fascinating in the extreme. This is, naturally, a novelization of her life, but Ms. Gregory fills in period details, politics and sociology in a beautiful blending of fact and fiction. The society's fixation on the unexplained as "witchcraft" is a theme of the novel which travels from Joan of Arc to the rise of King Edward IV (The Duke of York). It is a prequel to The Red and White Queen stories and both characters from the prior novels are re-introduced as children.Am retinut si o vraja in legatura cu sexul copilului nenascut, care se practica indeosebi la tara: se leaga verigheta de o ata si se tine deasupra pantecului, daca se roteste de la stanga la dreapta e baiat. Daca se roteste de la dreapta la stanga e fata. Romanul mi-a placut si am selectat si o declaratie de dragoste a lui Richard Woodville care mi s-a parut frumoasa : "... te-am iubit onorabil, asa cum trebuie sa-si iubeasca un cavaler stapana, si te-am iubit patimas, cum iubeste un barbat o femeie. Iar acum, inainte sa plec de langa tine, vreau sa-ti spun ca te iubesc, te iubesc..." Publishers Weekly wrote of the novel, "Gregory portrays spirited women at odds with powerful men, endowing distant historical events with drama, and figures long dead or invented with real-life flaws and grand emotions." The review adds that the author "makes history (mostly accurate) come alive for readers (mostly women) by giving credence to persistent rumors that academic historians (mostly men) have brushed aside." [1] One last comment; I have been reading Gregory for years, and am fascinated to note that the novels are getting less sensual as time goes on. This one was PG-rated. By the mid-1440s, the Woodvilles were in a powerful position. Jacquetta was related to both King Henry and Queen Margaret by marriage. Her sister, Isabelle de Saint Pol, married Margaret's uncle Charles du Maine while Jacquetta was the widow of Henry VI's uncle. She outranked all ladies at court with the exception of the queen. As a personal favourite, she also enjoyed special privileges and influence at court. Margaret influenced Henry to create her husband Baron Rivers in 1448, and he was a prominent partisan of the House of Lancaster as the Wars of the Roses began. [6] Wars of the Roses [ edit ]

Margaret is a horrible person, and I mostly despised her. I really felt like Jacquetta and Richard were on the wrong side the entire time. They're fighting for terrible people, and I get that, but it's such a stated fact, there's no emotional investment so you kinda just question why? Jacquetta of Luxembourg (1415 or 1416 – 30 May 1472) was a prominent, though often overlooked, figure in the Wars of the Roses. Through her short-lived first marriage to the Duke of Bedford, brother of King Henry V, she was firmly allied to the House of Lancaster. However, following the emphatic Lancastrian defeat at the Battle of Towton, she and her second husband Richard Woodville sided closely with the House of York. Three years after the battle and the accession of Edward IV of England, Jacquetta's eldest daughter Elizabeth Woodville married him and became queen consort of England. Jacquetta bore Woodville 14 children and stood trial on charges of witchcraft, of which she was exonerated. Jacquetta is married to the Duke of Bedford, English regent of France, and he introduces her to a mysterious world of learning and alchemy. Her only friend in the great household is the duke’s squire, Richard Woodville, who is at her side when the duke’s death leaves her a wealthy young widow. The two become lovers and marry in secret, returning to England to serve at the court of the young King Henry VI, where Jacquetta becomes a close and loyal friend to his new queen.I think the way the story is written in first person, present tense, made it completely emotionless. I felt nothing throughout this entire novel. I didn't really care who lived or died, what cities were lost or won ... zero emotional attachment from me. I wanted characters that I could really root for and admire and there were none to be found.