The White Queen

The first installment in the Cousins' War series is set during the Wars of the Roses, the prolonged 15th-century English civil conflict between the royal houses of York and Lancaster. The story is narrated by Elizabeth Woodville, a woman from a Lancastrian family who becomes Queen of England and spends her life defending her position, her children, and her dynasty.

In 1464, Elizabeth is a young widow with two sons, Thomas and Richard Grey. Her husband was killed fighting for the Lancastrian King Henry VI, and her dower lands have been seized with the backing of the Earl of Warwick, the powerful nobleman who helped place the young Yorkist Edward IV on the throne. Elizabeth's mother, Jacquetta of Luxembourg, traces her lineage to Melusina, a water goddess of European legend, and practices small acts of magic she has passed on to Elizabeth.

Elizabeth stations herself along a road near Grafton Manor, hoping to petition Edward as he rides past. An intense mutual attraction develops, and he agrees to investigate her land claim. That evening, Jacquetta ties a silk thread around an ash tree at the river and tells Elizabeth to reel it in a foot each day, promising it will bring her heart's desire. When Edward later meets Elizabeth alone under an oak tree and tries to force himself on her, she draws his own dagger and presses it to her throat. He leaves furious. After 22 evenings of reeling in the thread, Elizabeth pulls a gold ring shaped like a crown from the river.

Edward returns, confesses he cannot stop thinking of her, and proposes. They wed in a private ceremony with Jacquetta and a lady-in-waiting as witnesses, and Elizabeth produces the gold ring as her wedding band. At a council meeting in Reading months later, Warwick presents Edward with a French marriage contract, and Edward stuns the court by announcing he is already married. Elizabeth's brother Anthony writes to describe the chaos: Warwick is furious, and the brothers "got drunk on credit, as anyone would do" (55). Elizabeth is formally acknowledged as queen, despite fierce opposition from Edward's mother, Duchess Cecily.

Elizabeth receives a lavish coronation and immediately begins elevating her family, the Woodvilles, headed by her father, Baron Rivers. She and Jacquetta arrange marriages for every one of her sisters to lords or dukes and secure advantageous matches for her Grey sons. Edward sends his sister Margaret to marry the Duke of Burgundy over Warwick's objections, deepening the rift with his former mentor.

Warwick and Edward's brother George, Duke of Clarence, rebel. Their forces defeat the royal army at Edgecote Moor, and Elizabeth's father and brother John are captured and beheaded without trial. Edward is taken prisoner but escapes. Elizabeth writes the names of George and Warwick in her own blood and seals them in a black locket as a curse. After a fragile reconciliation, Warwick and George rebel again. Edward flees England with Anthony, his brother Richard of Gloucester, and Sir William Hastings, Edward's close companion. Elizabeth, pregnant with her first son by Edward, takes sanctuary at Westminster Abbey.

Elizabeth gives birth to Prince Edward in sanctuary. On the winter solstice, she and Jacquetta perform a ritual at the Thames, drawing from the water a silver baby spoon engraved with the name "Edward." When Edward returns with an army from Flanders, Elizabeth and Jacquetta blow mist from the sanctuary window, creating fog at the Battle of Barnet that conceals Edward's outnumbered forces. Warwick's army collapses in the confusion, and Warwick is killed. Edward then defeats the Lancastrian queen, Margaret of Anjou, at Tewkesbury, where her son Prince Edward is killed. Elizabeth tears Warwick's name from the cursed locket.

That night, Elizabeth watches from the stairwell as Edward, George, and Richard enter the imprisoned King Henry's chamber in the Tower. She does not call out to stop them. She reflects that "the House of York has taken a step on a road that will lead us to hell" (187).

Years of peace follow. Jacquetta's health declines, and she and a newborn granddaughter die within days of each other. Before her death, Jacquetta predicts that Elizabeth's eldest daughter, Elizabeth of York, will "marry a king and have a crown of her own" (191). Anthony becomes guardian of Prince Edward at Ludlow Castle in Wales. George grows increasingly dangerous, accusing Elizabeth of witchcraft and hiring a sorcerer to hasten Edward's death. Edward arrests him for treason, and George chooses to die by drowning in a barrel of malmsey wine. Elizabeth burns his name from the cursed locket.

In April 1483, Edward falls ill and dies. On his deathbed, he names Richard of Gloucester as lord protector, the guardian and temporary ruler for the young king. Elizabeth writes to Anthony to bring Prince Edward to London with armed men, but Richard intercepts the boy at Stony Stratford, arrests Anthony and Richard Grey, and takes custody of the prince. Elizabeth flees into sanctuary.

Elizabeth secretly leads her younger son through the catacombs to the river and sends him by boat to Flanders under the name Peter. She substitutes a page boy of similar age, coaching him to impersonate the prince. When Cardinal Bourchier, the Archbishop of Canterbury, comes to collect the boy for the Tower, Elizabeth hands over the disguised changeling. Richard has Hastings beheaded, executes Anthony and Richard Grey at Pontefract Castle, and takes the throne. Elizabeth hears Melusina's lament from the river, confirming her brother's and son's deaths.

Elizabeth plots a rebellion with the Duke of Buckingham, Richard's former chief ally who has since turned against him, and Margaret Beaufort, Henry Tudor's mother, but grows suspicious when Buckingham's agents claim the princes are already dead. She reasons that Richard had no motive to kill the boys, while both Buckingham and Tudor would benefit from their elimination. Elizabeth and her daughter curse the unknown murderer, declaring that whoever killed their firstborn will lose his own firstborn son.

Elizabeth of York idly wishes for rain at the sanctuary window, and a catastrophic storm floods England, as if answering the girl's latent magical gift. Buckingham's army disintegrates, and Henry Tudor's invasion fleet is scattered. Buckingham is captured and beheaded. Richard visits sanctuary at midnight and tells Elizabeth the princes vanished from the Tower; neither can determine what happened. Elizabeth negotiates her family's release, and her older daughters go to Richard's court. Richard courts Elizabeth of York, telling her he will put aside the ailing Queen Anne and marry her. The young woman falls deeply in love with her uncle. Richard's only son then dies, and Queen Anne dies soon after.

Henry Tudor lands at Milford Haven. Elizabeth sends Sir Edward Brampton, a loyal Yorkist confidant of the late king, to retrieve her hidden son from Flanders. The boy arrives at midnight, an 11-year-old who speaks three languages and answers to the name Piers. Elizabeth tells him his brother Edward is almost certainly dead. As her restored son sleeps against her knees, Elizabeth believes that when the battle between Richard and Tudor is decided, the white rose of York will bloom once more.