I was surprised, but I actually ended up liking this novel a shade better than "The White Queen". There's much less of the Melusina magic, which I really felt was used too much as a deus ex machina in "The White Queen". The relationship with Jasper Tudor, although completely fictional, was intriguing and even more so because I knew it could never truly be realised. The one-liners here and there. I actually liked Margaret's steadfastness and singlemindedness, and whilst her ruthlessness is shocki...

Margaret Beaufort is a horrible, selfish woman who thinks of no one but herself. God she angered me so much!! I've never read a character who I have wanted to punch more than her. It is all about her, her rise, her power because she was destined for greatness and she doesn't care who gets hurt along the way. She's made me so angry!! The story was pretty decent but the best bit was the battle description at the end. I loved Henry Stafford her 2nd husband who was obviously treated like crap and th...

The rise of Henry VII and the beginning of the Tudor reign, as told through the eyes of his mother, Margaret Beaufort. I always love Phillipa Gregory’s take on history, and I accept it for what it is--not history, but historical fiction. Who knows what I would have thought of Margaret if I had known her, but I found her a bit unlikable. Having really liked Elizabeth Woodville in Gregory’s The White Queen, perhaps it was more difficult to like this woman who imagined herself so holy and above oth...

After finishing this, the only real things I feel I have to say are that I HATE Margaret Beaufort and had many a moment while reading where I was hoping beyond hope that Elizabeth Woodville or some other such person would show up and strangle her to death with the rosary she's always fondling. Honestly, I cannot imagine how anyone could come to like Margaret while reading this novel. She is every negative stereotype about religious people all wrapped up in one and served with massive sides of se...

The Red Queen (The Plantagenet and Tudor Novels, #3), Philippa GregoryMargaret Beaufort never surrenders her belief that her Lancaster house is the true ruler of England, and that she has a great destiny before her. Married to a man twice her age, quickly widowed, and a mother at only fourteen, Margaret is determined to turn her lonely life into a triumph. She sets her heart on putting her son on the throne of England regardless of the cost to herself, to England, and even to the little boy. Dis...

Historical fiction is a passion of mine and I personally think that Philippa Gregory is one of the masters of the genre. I always find her books to be so well researched that as a reader you feel like you are experiencing that particular time first hand.This is the second book in the new cousins war series and I did find this novel hard going at first but after the first 50 pages I found myself completely absorbed in this novel and felt like I was there watching events unfold in front of my eyes...

I got it cheap with the Daily Mail in duty free and I see why.IT'S THE SAME BOOK BUT MADE A HELL OF A LOT MORE BORING! I was shocked at Gregory's choice of using the same time frame as The White Queen, although she included the story of Magaret from when she was 7 the main story line was the same, revolving around the same events. Since you knew what was going to happen next and who was true and who wasn't Gregory destroyed her best assesst, intrigue. You could skip chapters (I wouldn't but the

The storytelling is lengthy, the main character annoyingly flat, stupid and self-conceited, and the plot is really nothing to be even mildly surprised about if you have a vague idea of English history. Had the characters and storytelling been better, this might still have been a great read because it is quite an interesting and important historical time which was butchered in this book. If the historical Margaret Beaufort had been like this fictional one, there wouldn't have been a Tudor dynasty...

2.5 starsMargaret Beaufort wants to devote her life to church but is instead maried off to Edmund Tudor when she is 12. He dies soon after that but manages to get her pregnant before that. After her son Henry is born, Margaret devotes her life to get him on the throne.I don’t think I’ve ever hated any character so much as I hated Margaret! By page 60 I just wanted to stab her. She think she is England’s Joan of Arc ans is here to deliver England from the Yorkist. I got it, she’s pious person and...

First, despite its title, The Red Queen is not about Margaret of Anjou, but about Margaret Beaufort, Countess of Richmond, mother of Henry VII. (For some reason, no one in the novel ever addresses Margaret as the Countess of Richmond, though records from the time refer to her as such, and she herself seems to be unaware that she holds that title through her first marriage to Edmund Tudor, Earl of Richmond. I found this odd, because Margaret as depicted here is not a woman to forget the fact that...

When I read the reviews and everyone hated this book, I had to read it. As it turns out, everyone hates the heroine, but I didn't. I felt sorry for her, and I had to laugh at her self-absorption and self-vindication, but this is a girl raised to believe that blood lines matter, and that her only possible contribution is as a brood mare. She is married twice with no say in the matter; her last marriage she negotiates for herself.I appreciate this book. I appreciate the hard work and research Greg...

Now is the Spring of this woman's discontent...Cause, I mean, talk about bitter!In Philippa Gregory's The Red Queen the prominent historical figure from the War of the Roses period and eventual mother of King Henry VII, Margaret Beaufort is portrayed as one who felt God had destined her for a higher calling, of which she was robbed, and for which she was forever after embittered. The story follows Margaret from when she was a little girl daydreaming about becoming the next Joan of Arc, an Englis...

I have no idea if Margaret Beaufort was as she is depicted by Gregory, but her fictional alter ego is the most unlikeable person that I have come across in a novel in years. The first-person narrative gave little escape from this fanatical and self-absorbed woman. Henry Tudor's ascension to the throne as Henry VII is a a fascinating and unlikely story, but neither mother, the true believer in his destiny despite its apparent impossibility, nor Henry VII (whom I am more familiar with historically...

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