The King’s Curse – Philippa Gregory

Just to prove I’m not obsessed with historical crime – well, only a little- here is prove that I do still read historical fiction. Eventually.

As a book obsessed child, I would read anything, or at least most things. I especially loved the Jean Plaidy books. The young Mary Queen of Scots, Elizabeth I, Henry’s wives; I read and re read. When I got to A level history, I read my way through her version of the Norman conquest and firmly fixed the events in my head. I still have a large number of her books on my shelves, as she wrote prodigious amounts under each name she chose there is plenty of scope (ninety odd books ?!?).

So when I discovered Philippa Gregory I realised that this was a contemporary author also tackling the Tudors in a very personal way, after her books of other periods (Restoration, 18th century slave trade etc). I loved books like The Constant Princess about Katherine of Aragon, and The Queen’s Fool. The White Queen saga had some books that were better than others, but was overall an interesting look at the Cousin’s War.

So The King’ Curse looked interesting. Back to the Tudors. albeit at the slightly less well known viewpoint of Margaret Pole, near to the throne but never a serious contender in her own lifetime. There was to be a lot about Henry VIII, and seemed to link in with that interesting character, Elizabeth of York. History nerds seemed well catered for!

This is a sad, grumpy, discontented book. Margaret Pole saw her brother executed, lost at least one son to the executioner’s axe, and was consistently challenged by the outcome of Henry’s whim regarding his first wife and daughter, later Mary I. On the other hand, she did have four children who survived into adulthood and prospered for most of their lives. She was close to the court, was incredibly wealthy in her own right, and survived until she met her death on the block at sixty seven. While at times in danger because of her Plantagenet name. and widowed relatively young, spending sometime in a convent when thoroughly out of favour, overall there must have been times of joy, positive pride in her possessions, satisfaction that she was surviving and her children were not starving. Times when she looked around her lands, savoured her influence with the highest families, and enjoyed herself. Not according to this book.

One of the criticisms of Hilary Mantel’s book is that she has Cromwell lamenting his lost family throughout. Not surprising given the suddenness of their deaths, perhaps. I found the first two books of that trilogy fascinating for so much else, however. His kindness to others. His shrewd operations, his disposal of Anne Boleyn, or at least his involvement in his downfall. I have no doubt that Margaret, as a woman subject to the whims of Henry, had some extremely bad times. She had been on the side of a Queen who lost everything, including many babies, but had also had been the friend of royalty, had amazing wealth in her own right, and seen her sons rise to power and influence.  Gregory never gives the woman a break. Gloom, sadness, grief, constant fear and expectation of downfall. No great evenings of feasting, contentment in her extended family, appreciation that for some time at least, she was alive and enjoying life.

Opening the book at random, there are sentences such as “And you are right. What you fear is a terrible curse.” This is a well written book. It seems correct in historical detail, and there is every reason to suspect that Henry was a quixotic individual who was easy to displease. There is no positive in this book. No golden court of his early reign. No day to day enjoyment on Katherine’s part of his early devotion to her. Just gloom, fear and grief. I know that we are dealing with women who had sad ends, and we can easily discover how and when they died. One of the problems of historical fiction is that they all die in the end. This novel gives little sense of the good times they enjoyed before they did. Medieval life may have been nasty, brutish and short, but there must have been some good times, some enjoyment of what was going on. Some satisfaction in faith, wealth or love. Gregory gives little sense of this in this novel, yet I have read her books where there is optimism, affection and even joy, perhaps short lived. So, this is a worthwhile book. It gives a female perspective on life in the Tudor court, or at least on the edge of it. It is not an enjoyable read, but a worthy one.