philippa gregory war of the roses series

“It was a very superstitious time,” Gregory explains, “and yes, we can look back now and say that witchcraft couldn’t have altered events, but Jacquetta would have known how unnerved people were by witchcraft and recognised that potential power.”īecause of the high incidence of death in childbirth and mortality rates, women had to be physically very strong, and the fact that Anne Neville marched with the army for more than 100 miles proved that she had mettle to match any soldier. Jacquetta, the mother of Elizabeth Woodville, used a different tactic to gain power, and in episode four of the series is put on trial for witchcraft. When you consider Elizabeth I was her granddaughter, you can see there is an unobserved line of women’s education and literacy that goes right through the Plantagenet line.” She is credited by Caxton as being his editor. “Elizabeth Woodville was educated to an extraordinary level and was actually the patron of printer William Caxton. That was not all, though: “Yes, some are very seductive, some are very persuasive and some are just brighter than the men they are dealing with,” says Gregory. It is obvious that these women used their beauty and womanly wiles to get men to do their bidding. The women that were powerful were the ones who found a way to persuade men to work for them, and the heroines of The White Queen do that in the time-honoured fashion. They had no vote, no place on councils, in the Church or as a military leader (although Margaret of Anjou did manage to become an army commander).

It is power broking that is as clear, as unemotional and as unfeminine as if she were a man.”īack then women had no formal power. All of her marriages were marriages of ambition rather than affection. She therefore achieved the maximum power for a woman at that period in history. “Similarly, Margaret Beaufort didn’t marry for love, but as a direct route to getting her own son on the throne.

Philippa gregory war of the roses series