Tudor Rose: The Story Of the Queen Who United a Kingdom and Birthed a Dynasty [Paperback]

The War of the Roses between the House of Lancaster and the House of York came to an end with the crowning of Edward IV as King of England. He went on to marry Elizabeth Woodville, a beautiful widow but a commoner. Their marriage was never popular with either the common people or the nobility, as the greed of the Woodville clan knew no bounds. Still, Edward IV and his Queen would go on to have a beautiful and large family of four daughters and two sons. Elizabeth of York was the eldest, and this is her story.

Elizabeth led a life of privilege until the untimely death of her father. While her brother, Edward, was the heir apparent, he was still a young boy at the time of his father's death. He was to have been crowned King and a regency instituted, but at the eleventh hour, his uncle, Richard, brother of the late King, was declared the Protector of England. After placing Edward in the Tower, he persuaded Elizabeth Woodville, who had sought sanctuary with her children, to entrust Richard, her younger son and his namesake, to him. She did so, and never again did she see either of her sons again. Shortly thereafter, Richard was crowned King of England, having declared his brother's marriage to Elizabeth Woodville invalid and, consequently, their children bastards.

Eventually Elizabeth of York, her mother, and her sisters left sanctuary and went to live in the royal household of King Richard III. Political intrigues were to plague the reign of Richard III. Always at the heart of the discord was the mystery of what had happened to the young Princes in the Tower. Eventually, Henry Tudor, a descendant of the union of the Owen Tudor and Katherine, widow of Henry V, decided to challenge the kingship of Richard III. Henry was also a Lancastrian rival, as his mother, Margaret Beaufort, was a descendant of the union of John of Gaunt and Katherine Swynford.

After Elizabeth of York secretly pledged to marry him, Henry Tudor landed in England and made a claim for the throne of England. On Bosworth Field Henry Tudor and King Richard III met in battle, and the usurper was victorious, emerging by right of conquest as the new King of England, Henry VII. A cold and calculating man, he married Elizabeth of York to reinforce his claim upon the throne of England, as Elizabeth was considered by many to be the rightful Queen, given the mysterious disappearance of her two brothers. This union of the houses of Lancaster and York was to solidify all of England. The red rose of Lancaster and the white rose of York would henceforth be melded together as the Tudor rose.

Elizabeth's life with Henry would be a dispassionate union that would prove fruitful. They would have two boys, Arthur and Henry, as well as two girls, Margaret and Mary. Elizabeth, however, would forever wonder what had happened to her brothers. The fact that the mystery of the Princes in the Tower was never resolved would continue to plague the reign of King Henry VII, as pretenders would arise, claiming to be one of the lost Princes. Rebellions were mounted in the name of these pretenders, and with each one, Lambert Simnel and Perkin Warbeck, Elizabeth's hopes would rise that her brothers were still alive, only to see them dashed. While the union between Henry VII and Elizabeth of York would not be a joyful one, as his cold and parsimonious ways were to distance him from her, England would, indeed, prosper under their reign.

The author, a novelist noted for her beautifully written historical fiction, weaves a wonderful tapestry of fact and fiction. The story of Elizabeth of York, oldest daughter of King Edward IV of England, is a fascinating fifteenth century tale of political intrigues, power, and love that will stay with the reader long after the last page is turned. Historical personages and period detail come to life under the expert hand of this accomplished author. Those readers who love the genre of historical fiction will most certainly enjoy this book, as will those who love a well-told tale.

Not long ago, I read Philippa Gregory's tale of Elizabeth Woodville in The White Queen, so it's fitting that I now follow that up with the life of her daughter, Elizabeth of York, the first Tudor queen.

Margaret Campbell Barnes turns out a well-written workmanlike tale, beginning with the young Elizabeth, newly betrothed to the Dauphin of France, taking the first look at her wedding clothes. The duplicitous French change their minds about the marriage, and the next few years have Elizabeth acting as a buffer between her siblings and their highly emotional mother.

When Elizabeth's beloved father, Edward IV, dies, her education truly begins. With Edward's brother, Richard, on the throne, the young girl learns just what people are capable of when the pursuit of power is involved. She loathes Richard, blames him for all her family's misfortune, and offers herself in marriage to Henry Tudor. Elizabeth of York wants revenge.

However, she's also a young female who yearns for love in her marriage. Unfortunately she finds none with Henry. Henry has had to live cautiously his entire life and now that he's on the throne, he intends to stay there. He carefully studies each gesture, each move, to make sure it's carried out to its greatest effect. He watches every penny in an effort to rebuild the depleted treasury. Marriage to Elizabeth, in Henry's practical mind, is nothing but a business transaction. As the years pass, Elizabeth learns what her husband is capable of in the pursuit of power.

Elizabeth's life is all there: from her days as a young girl, through her marriage, her coronation, and her motherhood. For me, the book didn't start picking up steam until the last third of the book when Barnes let me know what she thought happened to Elizabeth's brothers, the Princes in the Tower. It's almost as if Elizabeth spent so much of her life guarding her thoughts and her reactions that it stripped most of the color from her life's story. The end result is a book that's good but not great.

I've become a fan of Margaret Campbell Barnes' historical fiction, but The Tudor Rose was just a bit too bland for me. One Barnes' novel that I can recommend whole-heartedly is King's Fool which deals with Elizabeth of York's son, Henry VIII. What a contrast! Unlike his mother, I don't think Henry VIII ever had a guarded thought or desire his entire life!

This was a reissue of a book originally published in the 50s. It is the story of Elizabeth of York, daughter of Edward IV, wife of Henry VII, and mother of Henry VIII. It was a good book but not exceptional, hence my rating of only 3.5 stars. I did enjoy it though, just not enough to give it a higher rating.

The story starts right before Edward IV's sudden death as Elizabeth is trying on her wedding dress, thinking she is to be married to the Dauphin of France, and ends a few months before her death. The reader is taken through all the turmoil of Bess's life: her father's death and her mother whisking them into Sanctuary, the knowledge that her brothers were murdered in the Tower, her feelings towards her Uncle Richard, her life married to Henry Tudor, and the uncertainty Perkin Warbeck throws over her in regards to the fate of her brothers.

In this novel, Barnes gives the reader a much more detailed look at Elizabeth of York. Other stories that have her in it really don't delve much into who she really was or what she was really like; we usually just see her as the quiet, submissive Queen to Henry VII. Being the daughter of Edward IV though, she could not have been that quiet and Barnes's portrayal of her here is of a very loving, caring, and passionate woman who desperately wants to know the love of a man. She seems to understand the world she is living in and that she is just a pawn to be used but at the same time she seems a bit naive when it comes to men, especially when it comes to her husband. It is mentioned many times throughout the book that she just wanted to find a man to love her. A lot of the story hinges on her feelings for her brothers, who she loved dearly, and how she makes some of her decisions based on that. While Richard is alive, and even at some points after his death, Bess seems to be struggling with her feelings for him; she can't decide how she feels. She wants to hate him and always appears to be trying to find reasons to convince herself of that, including convincing herself that he did indeed kill her brothers. Still, she is drawn to him. Her attempts to excuse and love her husband seem to me more of her trying to rid herself of her feelings towards her uncle.

There were some surprising aspects to the story, including Bess's relationship with her mother-in-law, Margaret Beaufort. In all the previous accounts I have read there really was no relationship between them; Bess was always pushed to the side and almost ignored by Margaret. Here, we see a very loving, caring relationship between them. Bess is also shown to have a very sweet, caring relationship with her youngest son, Henry. We also see Bess helping the conspirators early on by writing a letter to Henry in Brittany telling him that she will marry him if he comes and defeats Richard.

Barnes seems to follow the thinking that one of the brothers, Richard of York, might have managed to escape the Tower, but we don't really know that until almost the end of the story and even then she never comes right out and says it. Bess has very conflicting emotions when it comes to Perkin Warbeck and after meeting him in a garden, she convinces herself that it can't be her brother because Richard murdered her brothers (more attempts at convincing herself he was evil). She clings to this belief until after his death when she hears about his attempted escape from the Tower. While she never says anything in the story we are lead to believe that she changed her mind when she heard about Perkin running and opening the lion cages at the Tower before trying to get out the gate.

This was a well written book with great descriptive writing. There were good details included but not so much that you would get bogged down in them. Richard is shown to be a much more sinister person but Barnes doesn't go all the way to make him appear down right evil. We see some of how Bess worked behind the scenes to help bring about some of the events known to history but yet once she is married we still don't see her playing an active roll in politics; we only see her strong emotions and feelings towards what is happening around her. Thankfully there was no magic thrown in to this story where Elizabeth Woodville is concerned. The ending was peaceful and sweet with Bess in the garden with Harry and the other children, a few months away from the birth of her last child. I'm glad Barnes did not end the story at Bess's death but instead choose to end it showing that Bess did have people around her that loved her.

Overall it was a good book and one that I would recommend to other readers interested in the period. It was refreshing to finally read something that went deeper into Elizabeth of York's character to look at her feelings and emotions, rather than just keeping her on the fringes of events and never knowing what she thought about them. Even with my Richardian sympathies I wasn't upset over how he appeared in this novel.

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