All right, some terrific books over the last few days about one of my favorite subjects, Richard III. Can I just say how much I wish there were more great fiction titles about him and Anne like "The Virgin Widow"? I'm amazed I haven't read this one before, since it was published in 2011. I somehow missed it.
At any rate, told from Anne's point of view, this was great fun, I loved it. O'Brien made Anne very spunky and determined, and her Richard...oh, her Richard! He was ambitious and courageous and just a teeny bit naughty, which I don't think I've seen before. It makes sense if you think about it: we're talking about a guy who had two acknowledged illegitimate children who were born to him most likely while he was still in his teens.
Anne develops a crush on her older cousin when he comes to live and train to be a knight at her father's castle. Richard teases her but they do become friends and when Anne's father announces his decision to marry his girls to the King's younger brothers, Anne is not unhappy at the thought of marrying Richard. Then of course the Earl turns against Edward when Edward marries Elizabeth Woodville in secret and makes an alliance with Margaret of Anjou. He marries Anne to her son, Edward. Anne and Richard eventually make their way back to each other, and marry in secret--good thing, too, since Anne is pregnant (tsk, tsk, Richard). The book ends with the birth of their son, Edward. It was a lovely story, nicely done, and I thoroughly enjoyed it.
While I wait for some more Richard fiction that I've had to order, I turned to the shelf of books I already do own and read "The Children of Richard III" by Peter Hammond. There is, unfortunately, not a lot of information out there about Richard's children, not even his one legitimate son, Edward. No one is even really sure when he was born: it could have been as early as 1472, or as late as 1476. During his lifetime, he acknowledged two illegitimate children: a daughter named Katherine and a son named John. There have been rumors of others over the years, but we'll never know for sure. Edward of course died in 1484 during his father's reign as king. Richard made a good marriage for Katherine, who most likely died before her father, although of course we can't be sure. Her husband was described as a "widower" during the reign of Henry VII, and never remarried. Richard made his son John captain of Calais, a post he held until Henry VII had him executed.
I took a quick break from Richard to finish up the last Gossip Girl book, "It Had to be You". It was actually a prequel, set in sophomore year. Same old, same old: Serena and Blair are both fighting over Nate, who just wants to smoke weed and get laid. Nate is, quite possibly, the most realistic teenage boy I've ever seen in fiction. He's dumb as a post, can't make up his freaking mind about anything, and thinks about sex all the time. In the end Serena takes off for boarding school rather than be around to watch Nate and Blair be happy.
I'm glad I'm done with these books.
Okay, and finally, "Richard III: the Maligned King" by Annette Carson. Carson beautifully dismantles every negative thing said about King Richard, deftly taking on the Princes in the Tower, the rumors of his desire to marry his niece Elizabeth, and the notion that he was a tyrant. Richard's greatest downfall was how badly he underestimated his enemies. He kept putting faith in people who betrayed him, and when he would try to reconcile, they would betray him again. She made some wonderful points about all the good he did in such a short time on the throne, the laws he made that benefited the common people and angered the nobility, who sought to take him down, so eager to get rid of him that they backed a usurper with literally no legitimate claim to the throne. It was wonderfully done and extremely persuasive.
I'm enjoying seeing the rise in interest about King Richard III since the discovery of his bones back in 2012. Hopefully more will come to light about who he truly was and he'll gain the reputation and popularity he so richly deserves.
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