Author Description

"In Pembroke Castle, on 28 January 1457, the 13-year-old Margaret Beaufort gave birth to a son she named Henry. Her husband was already dead; her sufferings in childbirth were grave... England was in the grip of civil war - the War of the Roses. Known to contemporaries as 'The Cousins War', beyond the fields of battle raged a family feud, a violent and emotional domestic drama. For the noble women in this web of loyalty and betrayal their business was power; their sons and husbands the currency. It was their game of thrones... Gristwood depicts these critical years through the hopes and fortunes of seven royal women. Cecily Neville, the proud Yorkist matriarch, Marguerite of Anjou, the fierce French 'she-wolf' behind her king and Margaret Beaufort. The hapless Anne Neville, married to Richard III, and Elizabeth Woodville [consort of Edward IV], forced into deal-making with her enemy. Elizabeth of York, whose marriage to Henry VII promised peace after Bosworth, and her aunt Margaret of Burgundy, who constantly sent pretenders to harrass this new dynasty. [This] is a tale of hopeful births alongside bloody deaths, of romance as well as brutal pragmatism. It is a story of how women, and the power that [they] could wield, helped to end the Wars [of the Roses], paving the way for the Tudor age - and the creation of modern England."--Publisher description.