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Spun Stories
Amazon
Spun Stories
Category:
Historical Fiction
Publisher: Spun Stories Press
ISBN-10: 1512088498
Type: Fiction
Pages: 480
Copyright: Oct 18 2011
ISBN-13: 9781796820744
Price: $5.99 (eBook)
The entire saga of the Yorks, Lancasters and Nevilles, whose family feud inspired "Game of Thrones." Told by Lady Cecylee Neville (1415-1495), the Thwarted Queen.
"Thwarted Queen" is a portrait of a woman trapped by power, a marriage undone by betrayal, and a King brought down by fear.
It is 1424. Lady Cecylee Neville is nine years old. Her girlhood comes to a sudden end when her father, Ralph Neville, the Earl of Westmorland locks her up, to ensure her betrothal to Richard, Duke of York takes place.
It is 1441. Cecylee, Duchess of York is 26 years old. While her husband, Duke Richard is away fighting the French, Cecylee has a love affair which produces a child (the “One Seed” of Book II), who becomes King Edward IV. Somehow, Cecylee persuades her husband Richard, Duke of York, to accept this child as his own, even as he has the power to lock her up, or dispose of this illegitimate son.
It is 1483. Cecylee, Queen By Right, the King’s mother is distraught by the news of her son’s sudden death. King Edward IV was only forty years old, and had seemed in good health. He was a strong king who held together various political factions. With his death, all hell broke loose. If this sounds familiar, it may be because Season One of Game of Thrones takes its inspiration from the sudden death of a strong king (Robert Baratheon or Edward IV) and the war that broke out between the Starks and the Lannisters, or the Yorks and the Lancasters.
This novel contains many voices, not least those of the Londoners, who forged their own political destiny by engaging in public debate with the powerful aristocrats of the time - Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester (the King’s uncle), Richard, Duke of York (the King’s cousin) and Richard, Earl of Warwick, (known as Warwick the Kingmaker) - and set the stage for American Democracy.
Excerpt
“Cis, dearest: I wanted you to be the first to know. I am to marry Sir John Woodville.”
Cath was no longer young, for she was sixty-seven years old. Still, she was a handsome woman, who would have looked younger had she not lost most of her teeth. Every time she smiled, she drooled.
I handed her my handkerchief and signaled for the scribe to leave. “You mean to tell me, sister, the Serpent has commanded you to marry her brother John?”
Cath threw back her head and laughed: “Fancy calling Edward’s queen The Serpent. What has she done to you to deserve that name?”
“She has wormed her way into the House of York like a canker eating at an apple. Now she is commanding you to marry her brother.”
“He’s a lovely young man.”
“How old is he?”
“He’s—nineteen, I believe she said.”
“Cath!”
Cath flushed.
“You know how this is going to look.”
“But I’m lonely.”
“A lady of your years matched to a callow youth of nineteen!”
“But you know how much I like male company—”
“How could you agree to it?”
“—and I’ve had three husbands taken from me.”
“You know folk will not be kind.”
“I don’t see why I shouldn’t marry this charming young man.”
“She’s trying to humiliate you. The Serpent wants your money. After burying three husbands, she knows you to be wealthy.”
“But he’s sweet!”
“I’m going to see her now.”
“But Cis—” Cath plucked at my sleeve.
I brushed her off. “This isn’t about you, Cath. She’s trying to humiliate the Nevilles, the House of York, and me. I must put a stop to it.”
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