Queen of Trial and Sorrow

A B.R.A.G. Medallion winner, this is the story of Elizabeth Woodville, the wife of King Edward IV and the mother of the Princes in the Tower. As an impoverished widow, she was wooed and won by the handsome young king and believed her dreams had come true. But she was soon swept up in the War of the Roses, enduring hardship and danger as her husband struggled to keep his throne. When he died Elizabeth was unable to protect her family against the ruthless ambitions of the man he trusted above all others. It was the king's brothers, the unstable Duke of Clarence and the loyal Duke of Gloucester, who would prove to be Elizabeth's most dangerous enemies. If you enjoyed The White Queen by Philippa Gregory, you might enjoy Queen of Trial and Sorrow. Elizabeth conspires against Richard in a failed rising, but when it’s over she has to accept that he is the king and the only way her daughters are ever going to see the outside world again and have any kind of future is if she makes terms with him for their withdrawal from sanctuary. Richard reigns for only two years, his crown and his life taken in battle by an obscure Lancastrian pretender named Henry Tudor, who unites the two warring houses by marrying Edward and Elizabeth’s eldest daughter. Elizabeth has spent years hating Richard, but toward the end of her life, in retirement from the world, occupying a single room in an abbey and possessing only what it contains, she finds her hatred slipping away with the seasons and is able to acknowledge that once set upon his course Richard had no choice but to follow it to the bitter end. Once the first step was taken there was never a time he could have stopped the march of events.