karen9

I've just watched the final episode of The White Queen. I liked the series, though the BBC obviously didn't have enough funds to do the story justice. The battles were unrealistic with very small numbers and there were a few more inaccuracies than acceptable even in a tv series based on novels. Particularly showing Henry Tudor fighting at Bosworth when he stayed protected at the rear of the battle.  Many characters were not included, notably Richard's close friend Francis Lovell.  I think Aneurin Barnard was excellent as Richard III and the actresses who played the Neville sisters were the next best. It was unusual to see Anne Neville played as a strong ambitious woman rather than the mild and sickly one of history.  Rupert Graves was as usual very good in the role of Stanley, the traitor! I don't think rusty_armour would care much for his close-cut hair and his tatty beard!

I've just read Philippa Gregory's The Kingmaker's Daughter, the fourth in her series on The Wars of the Roses from the women's points of view. I enjoyed this one the most because it's more sympathetic to Richard of Gloucester, later Richard the Third. It's told from the point of view of Anne Neville, the second daughter of Warwick the Kingmaker, briefly wife to Henry VI's son Edward and then wife to Richard of Gloucester. While Gregory is sympathetic to Richard she doesn't attempt to whitewash him but presents him as a man of his time and she shows his good points. The most disturbing issue that she brings up in her series is his alleged seduction of his niece Elizabeth.