Recent Reads {The Red Queen}

The Red Queen by Philippa Gregory - This is the follow-up to The White Queen, which I read a couple of months ago, and tells the story of Margaret Beaufort.  Lady Margaret is from the Lancaster branch of England's royal family and her son from her first marriage would be the Lancaster heir to the throne at the beginning of tumultous years of the Wars of the Roses.  It is very difficult to like Lady Margaret -right from the beginning of this fictionalized account, when she is only a child, she is portrayed as vain, self-righteous, self-important, sanctimonious.  Granted, life was undeniably hard for women during the late middle ages, and it seems to me often more so for those of noble families despite the obvious advantages of their wealth and privilege.  Considering that children in important families were often raised by guardians rather than their own mothers; young noblewomen had few recognized rights or property of their own, and generally no say in who or when they would marry; and girls were "wedded and bedded" and had become mothers by the time they were young teens...  perhaps we should consider it remarkable that any of them survived with their reason intact.  Lady Margaret, at any rate, fancies herself the English counterpart to Joan of Arc and models herself after the French saint; desiring to be recognized as God's chosen to lead her country and do God's will.  She is an insufferable hypocrite and considers herself to always be in the right and on the side of God, no matter how cruel and vindictive and deceptive her behavior.  She sees fault in everyone else and despises them all.  And yet, of course I was compelled to continue reading and see how her scheming and plotting turns out, for her son Henry Tudor does come to England's throne eventually (as Lady Margaret had always known was his God-given destiny...) and so begins the storied reign of the House of Tudor.