What if you knew what happened to the Princes in the Tower.
Would you tell? Or would you forever keep the secret?
November, 1470: Westminster Abbey.
Lady Elysabeth Scrope faces a perilous royal duty when ordered into sanctuary with Elizabeth Woodville–witness the birth of Edward IV’s Yorkist son. Margaret Beaufort, Elysabeth’s sister, is desperately seeking a pardon for her exiled son Henry Tudor. Strategically, she coerces Lancastrian Elysabeth to be appointed godmother to Prince Edward, embedding her in the heart of the Plantagenets and uniting them in a destiny of impossible choices and heartbreaking conflict.
Bound by blood and torn by honour, when the king dies and Elysabeth delivers her young godson into the Tower of London to prepare for his coronation, she is engulfed in political turmoil. Within months, the prince and his brother have disappeared, Richard III is declared king, and Margaret conspires with Henry Tudor to invade England and claim the throne. Desperate to protect her godson, Elysabeth battles the intrigue, betrayal and power of the last medieval court, defying her husband and her sister under her godmother’s sacred oath to keep Prince Edward safe.
Were the princes murdered by their uncle, Richard III? Was the rebel Duke of Buckingham to blame? Or did Margaret Beaufort mastermind their disappearance to usher in the Tudor dynasty? Of anyone at the royal court, Elysabeth has the most to lose–and the most to gain–by keeping secret the fate of the Princes in the Tower.
Inspired by England’s most enduring historical mystery, Elizabeth St.John, best-selling author of The Lydiard Chronicles, blends her own family history with known facts and centuries of speculation to create an intriguing alternative story illuminating the disappearance of the Princes in the Tower.
Review
The Godmother's Secret is a harrowing but at the same time beautiful story about the love of a godmother and the fate of a nation.
Elizabeth St.John has written a breathtaking novel that is filled with court dramas, questionable loyalties, and cold hard truths. This is a book that has been waiting for centuries to be written. And although it is very much an alternative story, for we will never really know what happened to the young princes, it is a plausible story and the author writes with such authority that one cannot help but hope that this depiction has a grain of truth to it.
The Godmother's Secret is, I think, the most intensely enjoyably and immensely enthralling novel that I have ever had the pleasure to read. It is one of those books that not only immersed me in the story but also made me stop and think about my own feelings about the historical characters depicted, especially with regard to Lady Margaret Beaufort and King Richard III. But I also felt a very strong connection to Elysabeth whose eyes we see this story through.
If you are a fan of historical fiction set during the War of the Roses, then this book is one you simply have to read. I cannot recommend this book enough. It is a just deserving five-star read.
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Elizabeth St.John
Elizabeth St.John spends her time between California, England, and the past. An acclaimed author, historian, and genealogist, she has tracked down family papers and residences from Lydiard Park and Nottingham Castle to Richmond Palace and the Tower of London to inspire her novels. Although the family sold a few country homes along the way (it's hard to keep a good castle going these days), Elizabeth's family still occupy them— in the form of portraits, memoirs, and gardens that carry their legacy. And the occasional ghost. But that's a different story. Having spent a significant part of her life with her seventeenth-century family while writing The Lydiard Chronicles trilogy and Counterpoint series, Elizabeth St.John is now discovering new family stories with her fifteenth-century namesake Elysabeth St.John Scrope, and her half-sister, Margaret Beaufort.
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The Whispering Bookworm
What a wonderful review and high praise indeed, coming from you!
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DeleteThank you so much for hosting Elizabeth St.John today, and with such an amazing review. Much appreciated. xx
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