Idgie Says: An extremely detailed telling of the lives of two women surrounding the Tudor years in England. These women had no real authority or ability to run their own lives, but they took the tiniest windows of opportunity to make as much of themselves as they could. To hold what ground they could fight for. A very interesting story of this time in history - but pay attention, this is not a book you can skim through.
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SUCCESSION (Thomas Dunne Books; September 22, 2015) by Livi Michael, a dramatic historical novel about the fall of the House of Lancaster and the rise of the Tudor dynasty focusing on the two remarkable women that helped shape it. Drenched in history and scandal, SUCCESSION follows Margaret Beaufort and Margaret of Anjou through pinnacle years in England’s history when King Henry VI starts to lose his grip and these fascinating women step into place.
The birth of this well-crafted historical fiction
came when Michael was researching the Manchester Cathedral, and noticed
the stone angels on the roof of the cathedral, said to be donated by
Margaret Beaufort.
On further research, Michael was captivated by Margaret’s extraordinary
life and felt she wanted to tell the well-known story through the key
players’ eyes. Michael’s goal was to make the book as accurate as
possible, as she interweaves actual source material
and medieval chronicles, some written by monks associated with great
monastic houses, into the narrative.
In Succession, Livi Michael engages meticulously with the diverse historical accounts of the Wars of the Roses, but she also invests intimate and poignant humanity into the personal tragedies of an era wrought with conflict and terror.
Elizabeth Fremantle, author of Queen's Gambit Behind the bloody battle scenes of the Wars of the Roses lie the sinewy political skills of a remarkable pair of women. Margaret of Anjou, French, beautiful, unpopular; her marriage in 1444 to a young Henry VI causes national uproar. As English rule in France collapses, Henry goes insane, civil war erupts, and families are pitted against each other. With Henry VI incapacitated, Margaret Anjou is left to fight alone for her son's position as rightful heir. Meanwhile Margaret Beaufort, nobly born but far more distant from the throne, becomes a great heiress while only an infant. Her childhood is lived in echoing remote castles and she is lonely and vulnerable: everyone at Henry's court competes to be her guardian and to engineer an advantageous alliance through marriage to her. By the age of thirteen, she has married twice and given birth to her only son - the future King of England. But then she is separated from him . . . and her fight really begins Succession is the intense and powerful story of the women who gave birth to the Tudor dynasty.