The Kingmaker's Daughter

Philippa Gregory

24th November 2012

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 This novel talks about the story of Anne Neville, daughter of the Earl of Warwick, Richard Neville and Ann Beauchamps.

We follow her during her first meet with Elizabeth Woodville, Queen of England during 1464-1470 and 1471-1483, spouse of King Edward IV, until her death on 16 March 1485.

         When she was a child, the youngest king brother, Richard Duke of Gloucester and her, were betrothed together. But when her father, after his humiliation with Edward when he married Elizabeth Woodville, a widow of the House of Lancaster, he changes his coat against his cousin the king and marry his youngest daughter Anne Neville, with the heir of the House of Lancaster, Edward of Westminster. Richard and her have a conversation about her betrothal which is cancelled and Richard looks disappointed and says she « would have made an excellent duchess. ». But Anne tries to hid her disappointement and says she « never wanted to marry » him.

             Then, after her wedding, The Bad Queen, Margaret of Anjou, the French-born Queen of the last King Henry VI, takes her in her keeping. She become a dowager princess after the death of her husband on the Tewkesbury's battlefield in 1471 and the defeat of the Lancaster's Army. She become the « prisoner » of the king's brother, George Duke of Clarence, the Isabel's husband, her sister. George wants the Neville Fortune, Richard Neville died at Barnet, during the battle. Then Richard takes her in a sanctuary without his brother's permission and after a papal dispense, he marries her, his youth love. She becomes his wife, his partner. They have a boy, Edward, but he is weak and he died in 1484 far from his parents, at Middleham.

             We see their love, their doubts and their tears. And in fact we see how Richard, when he was duke, was torn between his two brothers and how their politics corrupted him.

             There is a very interesting sentence in the last chapter, the first ligne is « Richard prepares for invasion. I prepare for death » and it show the great separation between them. How the death of her son destroyed Anne and how Richard tries to keep the throne close to him but without heirs he is in danger. Then Princess Elizabeth of York is engaged to Henry Tudor and Richard tries to seduce her to dishonour the Henry's allies but he lose his wife by this way.

             The Anne's viewpoint stresses what she thinks about her husband and the evolution. In this novel, he is as a prince charming on his white horse trying to help her and taking her far from her first husband. He is loyault to his brother all of the time but he tries to protect his family against the Rivers when his brother the king died. He isn't painting as a monster, as a man who killed for power. Anne doubts at the end because she is afraid to lose her husband from her niece, Elizabeth of York. But she becomes quite paranoid and less self-confident.

            Now, I think we cannot say Philippa Gregory wrote an historical novel. There are some facts which are wrong and add magic, spells and witchcraft do not give to this novel a realistic way. A thing I do not like after this was that characters hadn't enough shade. But this is because of Anne's narration, we see what she sees. However, if you do not know the War of the Roses' period enough, you could like this novel as I liked it at first.

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Your view-point

Marigold ★☆☆☆☆ ∞

"Confession – I’m an English history freak with a long-time special interest in 15th Century England & Richard III, & that’s why I read this – and why I sometimes read historical novels though I know they’re going to be bad! I have some issues with factual content related to this book, but I realize it’s a novel - & I will attempt to review it with that in mind. But for those of you who might be tempted to think the content of this book is at all factual, it isn’t. I’m not going to point out all the discrepancies because I’m sure many of them are intentional & meant to create a better story. 

Gregory made almost no attempt to make the 15th century come alive, beyond the details anyone can get by perusing a few history books & novels. Food, a few details about castles, & clothing are all you’re going to get, as if Gregory set out to write a term paper for college on medieval life. There’s no sense of place, no local color, & little sense of the ways in which the 15th century was an enormously different world - & yet people then would not be unrecognizable to us today. 

Characters in the novel are mostly flat and uninteresting – which is almost a crime – these were fascinating people, in real life! Gregory did an OK job on Richard III, showing him in a mostly sympathetic light until the end of the book. He and Anne’s sister Isabel are the most interesting characters in the book, showing a range of emotions, and changing throughout the story arc. 

I always think it's a mistake to use first-person narration in a historical novel. The Kingmaker's daughter is of course Anne Neville, who became Richard III's wife. Here's how she sees the people around her. Edward IV is hardly in the book, & plays the role of Bewitched King. George of Clarence is a Bad Man at first, then suddenly becomes Good Man, Seeker of Truth, Loving Husband Avenging Death of Wife. Hm. Elizabeth Woodville – for once I find myself feeling sorry for poor Elizabeth – is a Beautiful Bad Witch. Princess Elizabeth is a Spoiled Beauty Out to Get My Husband. Anne’s mother is Bad Mom. Everyone in the book besides Richard & Isabel is all good or all bad. I was surprised that Gregory didn’t populate her book with more side characters to give it some color & background. Though we know so little about Anne, we know she was from a huge extended family; she must have had many cousins & friends of the family who knew her well & who surrounded her during her life. 

Gregory’s handling of Anne, her main character, is puzzling, & again the first-person narration really doesn't work. In the first third of the book, Anne is the smart daughter. She's willing to be a little sassy toward her dad; willing to grab hold of her father’s ambition & run with it herself; she can almost single-handedly deliver her sister’s baby on a boat, in the middle of a storm at sea! Anne acts to create her own destiny in marrying Richard, according to Gregory. So far, so good. Then Anne gets married & learns about court intrigue—and she becomes a paranoid, fearful woman who won’t ask her own husband questions about things that affect her life, & she is routinely left out of his plans. It didn't make sense to me within the confines of the book. There doesn’t seem to be a particular reason for the smart, capable girl Anne to become the fearful, shy Anne on the sidelines. 

I felt like Gregory was not very interested in Anne after her marriage to Richard. She is almost dismissive of her own heroine. I imagine that Gregory wasn’t able to make much of Anne’s life seem interesting at that point. Historically, we know little of her after this, except as a background to Richard. She sometimes went to court with him, but appears to have taken little part in events. (My personal theory about this is that she was ill, on & off, for much of her life. We know she died of TB & that disease can be present but very slow-moving, for years. I think Anne led a retired life &; was not much of a historical player, because she was sick.) She probably led a fairly “typical” life for a medieval Duchess, for the 11 years between marriage & becoming Queen - & that life probably wouldn’t make a very good novel either! 

As Anne didn’t get to do much acting on the stage of her life, yet Gregory had to do something with her, she tells us everything going on in Anne’s head, which really seems unbelievable, & is mostly about Anne’s fear of poisons & witchcraft & of the Woodville family in general. Poor woman, I guess if we took Gregory seriously, we might think Anne Neville was a bit soft in the head! 

This fear of the Woodvilles/Rivers family, & of poison & witchcraft, is the heart of the book, & I don’t think it stands up. No family is as evil as the Woodville family in the book. No well-educated woman of Anne’s birth & station would have been as paranoid & fearful of poison and witchcraft as Gregory has shown her. Yes, Richard & Anne would have had food tasters—poison was a concern—but I don’t think it would have been an obsession for them. It’s hard to say what they would have believed & worried about regarding witchcraft. It’s true that in Richard’s Act of Parliament claiming the throne, there is language saying that Edward IV’s marriage to Elizabeth Woodville was invalid for various reasons, including the fact that it had been accomplished through “sorcery and witchcraft.” In my opinion, Richard’s Act of Parliament contains a lot of language about the Woodvilles that’s intended to smear them as much as possible—throw everything & see what sticks, in fact. I think, though, this was a feature of the 15th century in England – character assassination and smear tactics, not unlike celebrity gossip of today. Richard smeared the Woodvilles – and they smeared him back, but good! There’s no historical evidence that Richard or Anne or anyone who really knew them, thought the Woodvilles were evil witches. They were hated because they were “upstarts” who took the lands &marriages & titles that the Old Nobility wanted, & because Elizabeth was a powerful woman who had some influence over her husband. The whole poison & witchcraft issue is larger than life in the book as Anne becomes more & more fearful – & frankly it’s boring because it’s repeated over &; over. By the end of the book I felt sorry for her but I also felt sorry for Richard having to deal with her, & couldn’t help but think he’d be happier with the Naughty Princess than with Crazy Anne! 

Anyway – flat characters, unexceptional writing, lack of medieval “flavor”, & weird, unnecessary twists on what should be a fascinating story. I suggest reading Sharon Kaye Penman’s The Sunne in Splendour instead – or Paul Murray Kendall’s bio of Richard III. You’re welcome. "

Donna Happy Booker ★★★★☆ ∞

"The Kingmaker's Daughter is probably my favorite of the Cousin's War series to date. It is written from the perspective of Anne Neville and gives yet another interesting point of view from this volatile period of history. One of the things I enjoy so much about Philippa Gregory's novels is that she somehow manages to turn what could have been tedious political maneuvering into exciting intrigue that keeps me riveted from the first moment. I am not a historian so I have no idea how historically accurate this series is, but I can say that they certainly paint a vivid picture of what living in that time period might have been like. From the court customs, to the fashions, the scandals, the betrayals, and executions, each aspect was brought to life in such a way that I almost felt myself a part of the story. 

Each character was shown from Anne's point of view so was colored by her own biases and was a bit different from how these same characters were presented in the previous books. The story was focused so much on Anne, and to a lesser extent Isabelle, that many of the other characters, at times, felt a bit flat. Anne's relationship with her sister Isabelle was reminiscent of the rivalry between Mary and Anne Boleyn in Gregory's popular novel, The Other Boleyn Girl. While there was always that undercurrent of love, each sister didn't hesitate to betray the other in order to further their own cause or that of their husband. I didn't find either sister to be particularly likable, and sometimes thought that their personalities were a bit contradictory. For example, Anne seems to have grown from a bright, practical, inquisitive child into a fearful woman ruled by her superstitions and unwilling to even consider any point of view than that which painted her family in a positive light. I guess that the struggles she was faced with could account for such a drastic change in character but it was still a bit odd. 

One of the things about this series, including The Kingmaker's Daughter that I was not a fan of was the witchery and spells and magic that were included. However, after discussing this with a friend who is also reading the series, I can see how it may have been presented this way because of how the players so wholeheartedly believed that witchcraft was responsible for many things such as storms, sicknesses, and death. Curses were taken very seriously in 1400's England and so reading from Anne's perspective, I can see why an unexpected storm would be believed to have been whistled up by the witch who hated her. I guess this was a realistic danger in this time period, that any misfortune could be laid at the feet of someone believed to be a witch. This would have been a very effective way to discredit a powerful woman, as it seems to have done in the case of Elizabeth Woodville. 

While The Kingmaker's Daughter can be read on it's own as a stand-alone novel, I would definitely recommend reading the entire series in order simply because it is a beautifully written thrilling story. Despite the fact that I found many of the characters to be a bit flat, the fast paced plot was such that I found the book hard to put down. I know many people, after reading Philippa Gregory's historical fiction have been inspired to find out more about this violent era and these fascinating people. I would absolutely recommend this and any and every other book written by this author to any fans of this genre."

Veronica ★★★★★ ∞

"This was one of the best portrayals of Anne Neville that I have read. Little more than a pawn in her father's schemes, she could do nothing but follow his orders until the day that Richard rescued her. I really enjoyed the portrayal of Richard who becomes Richard III. He proclaims his innocence in the disappearance of the two princes in the Tower and even seems to grasp just how much people will despise him and blame him for the disappearance. Gregory has done it again and brought Anne to life in this new book. Definitely recommend!"

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