One More The Tudors Post--And Adding In The White Queen

Thanks to the suggestion of brilliant novelist, Jonathan O'dell, I have begun to watch, in my extremely limited spare time, a British series called The White Queen, which is about Elizabeth Woodville Grey, a daughter of mid-level gentry who became the Queen of England, the mother of a queen of England, and the grandmother of Henry VII. So, yes, this is about the beginning of the Tudor dynasty, more or less. (Don't you miss Hans Holbein? Well, it looks like somebody painted her in that style, years after her death--here--)

The White Queen is based on several novels by Philippa Gregory, (The White Queen, the Red Queen and The Kingmaker's Daughter.) 
I try not to speak disrespectfully of other novelists, so I will say that Philippa Gregory has, let's see: 

1) Created new interest in areas of history that were little explored before.
2) Managed to sensationalize stories that were already sensational
3) Oh, what the hell. I give up being generous. I get furious with her books. She twists known history, like turning Mary Boleyn into the innocent, sweet, younger sister of evil Anne Boleyn, when Mary was most likely older, had been Henry's mistress before Anne, and was known, from the sister's very early days when both were ladies in waiting in the French court, as "the English mare," (i.e., she'd been rode so often. .  .) And the stuff about Anne in her books is taken from the worst nasty gossip, which she reports as Gospel truth. In fact, she--oh, that's enough. I'm not interested in ranting. 

So, I approach the series with caution, though so far, it seems fairly innocuous, except that Woodville's mother, Jaquetta of Luxembourg (who sports a highly edified English accent, of course) claims to be a witch, descended from the water snake, Melusine. Which I would have loved when I was, say, sixteen, though now, the very idea causes me to give a very sixteen-year-old roll of the eyes.  Now--it's very possible that Jaquetta of Luxembourg did, in fact, curse the Tudor family, via a genetic condition, but that's a different story. 

But, at least so far, the actresses have strong faces and terrific, Tudor noses. (Amanda Hale, Rebecca Ferguson, Faye Marsay, Janet McTeer, Caroline Goodall.) 

So, we shall see. . .