Telynor's Library, and then some

Given that the founders of the Tudor dynasty -- Henry VII and Elizabeth of York -- tend to get very little written about them, I was really looking forward to this new release by long-time Tudor biographer, Alison Weir. There have been several fictional books about this queen of England, and most of the time she is a nonentity, just the symbol of what royalty ought to be -- good, modest, charitable and pious.

But once the facts of Elizabeth's life are drawn together, something else emerges. Born the eldest child of King Edward iV, a king who took the throne by force, and his queen, Elizabeth Wydeville, Elizabeth grew up in a wealthy, cultured court. She had numerous siblings, six sisters and three brothers, and to all appearances, the succession was assured. But there were rebellions and illness, and when her father died, Elizabeth's world took a sudden turn into uncertainty. Her two surviving brothers, Edward and Richard, vanished into the Tower and her uncle Richard, Duke of Gloucester took the throne.

Now Elizabeth was in sanctuary, with her mother and sisters, declared a bastard due to some tricky politics. There were rumours that a Lancastrian claimant, Henry, Earl of Richmond, was gathering a force to invade England. And Richard III invited her to his court, while his queen was failing, and whispers had it that he would seek to marry his own niece...

Unfortunately, despite all of the hints of a romantic tale involving a desperate, isolated princess and a claimant to a throne seeking to overturn a tyrannical ruler, that isn't what we're getting here. Weir manages to suck out all of the interest of this tale, and leaves behind dry facts. We get the leavings from account books, quite a few conspiracy theories -- and they are all maybe, somewhat and perhaps in nature -- and the daily trivia of life in a royal court. While we get a few interesting facts, Weir ruins it by tacking on the price of everything in both the currency of the period, and modern equivalents. We do get to see the births of Elizabeth's children, and the ritual that surrounded such events,

The biggest problem is that Weir wants to talk about everyone but Elizabeth. We get to see the people around her, but precious little of Elizabeth herself. And that's a shame -- I was hoping to find out more about this survivor of treachery, betrayal, and schemes, but all we get here is a tired retread of history we already know, and padded with so much filler that trying to read it becomes a chore. And that's too bad.

Just two and a half stars here, and a not recommended.