#Penman's tagline for her should've honestly been 'You thought THIS character was bad? Never fear - Elizabeth Woodville is 10x worse!'

[wonder-worker]

What are your favorite Plantagenet-related novels, and why do you love them?

Hi! I'm so sorry, I don't read lots of medieval English historical fiction, and the ones I have read are pretty terrible (three guesses which).

Once again: sorry! If anyone else has any recommendations, feel free to share them!

#ask #I've heard that Sharon Kay Penman's Plantagenet trilogy is pretty good? I haven't read it though so I can't say #'The Sunne in Splendour' (Penman's WotR book) was absolutely terrible though #It has all the hallmarks of a classic Ricardian novel. It IS one of the classic Ricardian novels I think? #Richard is an entirely innocent selfless righteous man with a glorious and divinely-blessed reign who's the victim in every situation #Isabel Neville was treated awfully. Margaret of Anjou was treated awfully #Elizabeth Woodville was somehow treated worse than both of them combined and was ridiculously sexualized on top of it #Penman's tagline for her should've honestly been 'You thought THIS character was bad? Never fear - Elizabeth Woodville is 10x worse!' #The book goes out of its way to emphasize how she was the worst thing to ever happen to England; how the Woodvilles made the 1450s look #like 'petty squabbling'; how Elizabeth made Margaret of Anjou look like a 'veritable saint by comparison' #also I distinctly remember her own husband yelling at her that she would sleep with a leper if it meant her becoming queen #This line just about sums it up: 'Warwick doubted there had ever been a Queen as little liked as the woman Edward had taken as his wife' #I'm like 99% sure that Cersei Lannister was primarily based off Penman's Elizabeth. The similarities are uncanny #Though Cersei is nonetheless treated better and given infinitely more depth than Elizabeth was - that's how badly she was depicted #I want to call her a Disney villain on steroids but frankly that would be inaccurate because even they are given more respect #I was always interested in Elizabeth but this book was one of the main reasons I became so defensive of her #What else...? #Penman's characterizations of Thomas Gray and Edward of Lancaster were pretty on par with classic Ricardian novels so I wasn't surprised #(though I will say that despite Edward of Lancaster being treated terribly he was still afforded more depth and sympathy than Thomas was) #What did surprise me was the fact that she wrote ANTHONY WOODVILLE as a violent scheming thug. Yes really #Honestly anyone remotely related to the Woodvilles is portrayed as cartonnishly evil #And EDWARD V oh god. This 12-year old kid is depicted as a cold cruel capricious tyrant who's more Woodville than royal (classism anyone?) #I'm 99% sure Joffrey Baratheon was based off Penman's portrayal of him. His dynamic with Elizabeth certainly matches Cersei's with Joffrey' #... anyway this rant has nothing to do with anon's question #sorry