Philippa Gregory continues telling the stories of the women of the War of the Roses.
With The Lady of the Rivers she lets us into the the world of Jacquetta, the Duchess of Bedford. Jacquetta is a descendant of Melusina, the river goddess, and like many of her family before her has inherited the ‘gift’ of second sight. As advised by her aunt, Jacquetta tries to keep her powers a secret but soon catches the eye of the Duke of Bedford. After their marriage, he introduces her to the mysterious world of alchemy and tries to use her ‘sight’ to keep the English in control of France.
While in his household, Jacquetta befriends her husbands squire, Richard Woodville, and after the Dukes death secretly marries Woodville. The Woodvilles return to England and take their place at the Lancastrian court where Jacquetta becomes a close friend and loyal subject to the new Queen Margaret. Jacquetta and Richard are leading a very happy life at court and their home full of children until King Henry VI falls into a 
mysterious sleep and the Queen turns to advisors who may not have the kingdom best interest at heart.
War ensues between the Lancasters and the Yorks for the throne and Jacquetta does her best to fight for her King and Queen but also the best interest of her children especially her daughter, Elizabeth. She has sensed a very fortunate turn of events for Elizabeth’s future which mysteriously involves the white rose of York.
The Lady of the Rivers is a prequel to Gregory’s previous books in The Cousin’s War series, The White Queen about Elizabeth Woodville and The Red Queen about Margaret Beaufort. This series tells the story of the Plantagenets, the houses of York and Lancaster, who ruled and constantly were at war for the crown before the Tudors came into power.
I have throughly enjoyed reading Gregory’s novels about both the families of the War of the Roses and the Tudors. I try to always read some non-fiction about the characters that I read in all the historical fiction that I read so I was pleased to see that along side the publication of this new novel Philippa Gregory along with David Baldwin and Michael Jones have published a book with historical essays
about the three women of The Cousin’s War Series.
What is also interesting is that Gregory discusses the differences in history and historical fiction and just exactly how speculation plays a role in writing each. Anyone who has any interest at all in this time period will be well served to pick up this book also. The Women of the Cousin’s War is on my beside table at this very moment.
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