One woman’s ambitions for power, love, and a child will cost her everything. England is in a golden age with King Henry V and Queen Catherine of Valois on the throne. Jacqueline of Hainault has come to England to ask for help to take back her birthright. A young woman named Eleanor Cobham joins Jacqueline’s court, but Eleanor desires more. She wants power, the man she loves to love her, and a child. But when all else fails, Eleanor turns to a darker path to secure the throne. How did things go so horribly wrong, and why did Eleanor go to such extreme measures? Philippa Gregory tells the tale of Eleanor Cobham and the charges that made her infamous in her latest novel, “Royal Witch.”
I want to thank William Morrow and Net Galley for sending me a copy of this novel. In recent years, I have come to appreciate Gregory’s newer books, so when I heard that she was writing a novel about Eleanor Cobham, it caught my attention. I have heard of Eleanor Cobham as a side character in books about King Henry VI, but I didn’t know much about her life, so I wanted to see how Gregory would tell her tale.
We begin the day that Eleanor Cobham’s life changed when her mother died, and Eleanor was no longer destined to live in a monastery. Now, she could chart her own path, which happened to land her in the court of Henry V. There, she meets the woman whom she will serve, Jacqueline of Hainault. Jacqueline is a woman on a mission to get her counties of Hainault, Holland, and Zeeland back from her husband, John of Brabant, whom she wants a divorce from, and Philip, Duke of Brittany. The only way she can do that is by seeking the help of King Henry V. Henry V’s brother, Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester, comes to Jacqueline’s aid as he seeks to become her husband and Count of Hainault. While navigating the complex nature of Jacqueline’s situation, Eleanor falls in love with a young Welshman, Owen ap Maredudd.
Nothing can stay the same forever, as the powerful King Henry V dies, leaving the throne to his infant son, King Henry VI. Eleanor does eventually marry, but not truly for love, but for power, as she finds out that Owen made a scandalous match of his own and married Dowager Queen Catherine of Valois. Eleanor and her husband, Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester, try everything to get ahead, but in the end, Eleanor resorts to consulting Margery Jourdemayne and others to help in a darker matter. The cost will be insurmountable for Eleanor Cobham.
This was an engrossing novel about a lesser-known figure in Plantagenet history. Eleanor is one of those figures you want to stop and let her be satisfied with the life she had, but you know they are digging themselves further into a hole that they cannot escape from. I am excited to see who Gregory will write about next. If you want a delightfully dark and dangerous novel about one woman’s unlimited ambitions and her fall from grace, I highly recommend you read “Royal Witch” by Philippa Gregory.
The date is August 22, 1485, and a young man stands in the middle of a battlefield. He has done what seemed nigh impossible, he defeated the last Plantagenet king Richard III to become the new King of England. His heritage makes this man unique and qualified to start a new dynasty. His mother’s family the Beauforts have been explored quite heavily by historians and authors alike. They see this victory as a change in English history whereas his father’s family sees it as a sign of something deeper. To the Tudors and Henry’s fellow Welshmen, it is the fulfillment of a centuries-old prophecy. So who were Henry Tudor’s ancestors and what did it mean for Henry to be the titular Son of Prophecy? Nathen Amin tells the remarkable story of the Tudors and how their struggles and triumphs led to Henry Tudor taking the throne in his latest book, “ Son of Prophecy: The Rise of Henry Tudor.”