THREE SISTERS, THREE QUEENS.

THREE SISTERS, THREE QUEENS by PHILIPPA GREGORY.

INNER FRONT COVER BLURB: “There is only one bond that I trust: between a woman and her sisters. We never take our eyes off each other. In love and in rivalry, we always think of each other.”

When Katherine of Aragon is brought to the Tudor court as a young bride, the oldest princess, Margaret, takes her measure.  With one look, each knows the other for a rival, an ally, a pawn, destined – with Margaret’s younger sister Mary – to a sisterhood unique in all the world. The three sisters will become the queens of England, Scotland and France.

United by family loyalties and affections, the three queens find themselves set against each other. Katherine commands an army against Margaret and kills her husband, James IV of Scotland. But Margaret’s boy becomes heir to the Tudor throne when Katherine loses her son. Mary steals the widowed Margaret’s proposed husband, but when Mary is widowed it is her secret marriage for love that is the envy of the others.

As they experience betrayals, dangers, loss and passion, the three sisters find that the only constant in their perilous lives is their special bond, more powerful than any man, even a king.

FIRST SENTENCE {BAYNARD'S CASTLE, LONDON, ENGLAND, NOVEMBER 1501}: I am to wear white and green, as a Tudor princess.

MEMORABLE MOMENT {PAGE 295}: The horse bucks, its trappings flapping, its reins trailing; the knight lies still, obviously winded, perhaps worse. Grooms in their blue damask catch the horse, squires in their blue satin run to the knight. They open his visor, his head lolls.

SOURCE: A gift from Mr T purchased from BookPeople.

READ FOR:  2017 Mount TBR Reading Challenge (8th of 24 books read).

MY THOUGHTS: Though published recently, this is in fact the continuation of the Tudor Court* novels which began with The Constant Princess (first published 2005).

The first Philippa Gregory in a long while that I have truly enjoyed from start to finish. In Three Queens, Three Sisters the author weaves a complex and yet totally compelling story of the political and social life during the Tudor era in a way that I haven't savoured in in quite a while. 

Of course its historical fiction (and therefore open to poetical licence) which along with the fact that not many biographies exist of Margaret, sister of Henry VIII and Dowager Queen of Scotland, (whose story it firstly and foremostly is) makes it very difficult to know just how accurate the portrayal is BUT seemingly well researched, Margaret comes across as a remarkably strong if not particularly likeable woman.

Though full of jealousies (many of them petty) towards the other queens of the title, her younger sister, Mary and her sister-in-law, Katherine of Aragon (or Katherine of arrogant as she refers to her), often petulant, capable of changing loyalties at the drop of a hat and yet here portrayed as something of an early feminist, Margaret essentially comes across as a woman doing the best she could.

The only thing to put me off slightly. Not a fan of the 'letter' format of writing a book to begin with, printed in italics I struggled to read the correspondence written between the three sisters. 

* See the series explained here along with a review of the fifth book in the series, The Taming Of The Queen.