Today I am thrilled to be taking part in the celebrations for the publication of the first in a new series on the Tudors by Alison Weir, Elizabeth of York The Last White Rose.
Elizabeth of York would have ruled England, but for the fact that
she was a woman. The eldest daughter of Edward IV, at seventeen she was
relegated from pampered princess to bastard fugitive, but the probable
murders of her brothers, the Princes in the Tower, left Elizabeth
heiress to the royal House of York, and in 1486, Henry VII, first
sovereign of the House of Tudor, married her, thus uniting the red and
white roses of Lancaster and York.
Elizabeth is an enigma. She
had schemed to marry Richard III, the man who had deposed and probably
killed her brothers, and it is likely that she then intrigued to put
Henry Tudor on the throne. Yet after marriage, a picture emerges of a
model consort, mild, pious, generous and fruitful. It has been said that
Elizabeth was distrusted and kept in subjection by Henry VII and her
formidable mother-in-law, Margaret Beaufort, but contemporary evidence
shows that Elizabeth was, in fact, influential, and may have been
involved at the highest level in one of the most controversial mysteries
of the age.
Alison Weir builds an intriguing portrait of this
beloved queen, placing her in the context of the magnificent,
ceremonious, often brutal, world she inhabited, and revealing the woman
behind the myth, showing that differing historical perceptions of
Elizabeth can be reconciled.
My Thoughts
I thoroughly enjoyed this comprehensive look at the life of Elizabeth of York and the characters she was surrounded by. There were some formidable women in her family and you sense from the start, the will to survive despite the politics of the time. It was a dangerous place for royal princes and princesses, especially when attempts were made to take the throne and Elizabeth had to be pragmatic and keep her wits about her.
There is plenty of period detail to soak up as you follow Elizabeth's tale and you know that the author is fully in control of her information. In writing historical fiction, you have to marry up what is known and what is more speculative. You also have to breathe life into the story and bring the characters to life. You certainly feel for Elizabeth when her position as rightful heir is ignored due to her sex and it is amazing that only one hundred or so years later, her female descendants were able to assert their right to be monarch. This novel, although lengthy, varies you through her story and I can highly recommend it to anyone who loves this period in history.
In short: Elizabeth of York: Mother Survivor Queen
A note from Alison Weir…
Elizabeth of York’s life has always fascinated me because it
spans my two favourite periods of English history: the Yorkist age and the
early Tudor era, a time that saw the end of the medieval period and the dawn of
modern England. Her marriage to Henry VII united the warring royal houses of
York and Lancaster and founded the Tudor dynasty.
Elizabeth was beautiful and cultivated – and she should have
been the rightful Queen of England after the probable deaths of her brothers,
the Princes in the Tower, in 1483. She had a better claim to the throne than Henry
VII, but because she was a woman, no one championed her right. She was regarded
chiefly as the heiress of the royal House of York, through whom the right of
succession could be transmitted by marriage.She passed on that right to her
son, Henry VIII.
Having published a biography of Elizabeth in 2013, I have
long wanted to write a novel about her, because there are tantalising gaps in
her story. Despite the wealth of source material, history does not always
record her thoughts, emotions, motives, hopes and fears. She was passionate and
proactive in intriguing behind the scenes to become queen. Once she was
crowned, however, her voice was silent, so we can only speculate on how events
affected her. And that leaves plenty of scope for a novelist…
Among the many mysteries that surround Elizabeth is the fate
of the Princes in the Tower. We can only imagine the distress that her
brothers’ disappearance and rumours of their murder caused her. Later, the emergence
of a pretender claiming to be the younger Prince must have impacted profoundly
on her. In this novel, I offer what I believe to be the most credible
explanation of what happened to the Princes.
Having written six novels about her daughters-in-law, the
wives of Henry VIII, Elizabeth of York was the obvious choice for my next foray
into fiction, this book being the first in the Tudor Rose trilogy that will span
three generations of England’s most celebrated royal dynasty.
About the Author
Alison Weir is the bestselling female historian in the
United Kingdom, and has sold over 3 million books worldwide. She has published
twenty history books. Alison is also the author of twelve historical novels,
including the highly acclaimed Six Tudor Queens series all of which were Sunday
Times bestsellers. The complete short-story collection, In the Shadow of
Queens, accompanies this series. Alison is a fellow of the Royal Society of
Arts and an honorary life patron of Historic Royal Palaces.
You can follow Alison here: Twitter | Website
Book link: Amazon UK
Thanks to Alison Weir, Headline Review and Anne Cater of Random Things Tours for a copy of the book and a place on the tour.
Check out the rest of the tour!
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Thanks for the blog tour support x
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