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This story is told through the eyes of Anne of York, as she is on her deathbed. She was young girl in her father's household during the time of the War of the Roses in England. In the course of the book, she explains the whole problem that resulted in this war. Her father is the Earl of Warwick, also called The Kingmaker. He is a very important person who brings Edward IV to the throne. He is an ambitious man. He doesn't have the correct heredity to be king himself, but he is very popular and strong, wealthy and beloved by the people of England. He expects Edward IV to continue to obey him as king as he did as prince. Edward IV has the classic tall height and reddish blond looks that are so much admired in kings by the people of England. He is also a very outgoing person; all women love him, and he becomes quite promiscuous. Just slightly younger is his brother George, who is also just slightly shorter and slightly less-liked than Edward. There is also a younger brother, Richard, who is small, slight, and rather sickly even when he reaches teenage. The young Richard is sent to live with Warwick, along with other boys his age, to learn manly skills. He tires easily and seeks a hidden arbor to rest out of sight of the other boys. There Anne finds him, and as children, love between them develops. Richard's bravery in trying to keep up with the other boys in spite of his physical problems endears him to Anne. She encourages him and convinces him that he will grow out of his smallness and weakness and be equal or better than the others some day. Anne's love and sympathy means a great deal to Richard.The first problem that develops in Warwick, the kingmaker's plans, is that Edward falls head over heels in love withElizabeth Woodville. The beautiful Elizabeth plots with her mother to become queen and raise the whole family to important positions. It seems that the Woodville family is not very high on the scale of English nobility, but Elizabeth won't sleep with the king without marriage vows. The king marrys her, semi secretly, as it seems. Warwick is not consulted and probably the earl had plans of marrying his older daughter, Isabel, Anne's sister, to the king. Warwick does not take the situation gracefully, but he marries Isabel to George, Duke of Clarence. Rebellious George wants the throne for himself, so Warwick backs him.The War of the Roses is between the rival houses of York and Lancaster. The heir to the throne on the Lancaster side is Henry VI who was deposed by the Yorks with the aid of Warwick. As a part of his rebellion against Edward IV of the York house, Warwick betroths his daughter Anne to the son of Henry VI and Margaret of Anjou, an angry and powerful woman. Henry VI is rather demented, and his wife is the powerful one who is seeking to restore the kingdom to the Lancasters by putting her son, also named Edward on the throne. Anne, in spite of her love for Richard, is sent off to France to be groomed by the formidable Margaret as the bride of her son. Margaret is not much impressed by mild-mannered little Anne, and Anne is scared silly by her to be mother-in-law, but shared tragedies draw the two together. In a civil war, the Lancasters lose. Edward, the son of Margaret is slain, as is Warwick. Henry VI is murdered in the Tower of London, Margaret and Anne are captured, but although Margaret is imprisoned, Anne is released.This complicated and fast-moving story continues. We are not even half-way done at this point. Though many obstacles are placed by brother George, Richard and Anne are united in marriage. King Edward IV and Elizabeth Woodville have many children, among them sons, so Richard and Anne live happily on their estate in northern England. Richard is now a healthy man although shorter and darker than his two sparkling brothers. He has been faithful to his brother Edward IV and fought by his side in the war against Margaret Ajou and her family. George has been traitorous on several occasions but has always been pardoned by his loving brother, the king. The cloud in Anne's happy life is that the marriage has only produced one child, a boy whose health is extremely delicate. Anne comforts Richard and herself by remembering that Richard too was a weakling as a young boy, and he became a strong man. A potential blot on the marriage is that while Anne was in France, Richard took a mistress and had two bastard children. These children lived with their mother, but when that woman died, Richard asked Anne to receive them into their family. This was a struggle for Anne, but her mother who was visiting at the time counseled Anne to receive them in a good spirit. That was done, but the healthy, active lives of these two contrasted greatly with the sickly body of Anne's son and convinced her that she had to dedicate herself to him to keep him alive.To everyone's consternation and surprise, another plot was discovered by George against the king. He was put in the Tower and died under suspicious circumstances. A short time later, King Edward IV died a premature death at about 44 years of life. He had been a fast-living, rich-eating man, and his death was ruled a heart-attack. One of his last acts was to appoint Richard regent for his 12-year-old son, Edward V. Richard had to go where duty called, but Anne insisted on staying home to care for her sickly son. Richard felt an urgency to get to London to accompany the new boy king to his throne before the Woodville uncles took over. He was very disappointed to not have Anne at his side. She was his greatest confident and adviser. Somehow, someone found proof that Edward IV had married a different woman previous to Elizabeth Woodville. That woman had been placed in a convent, but the marriage had not been annulled nor had she been divorced. That made the marriage with Elizabeth Woodville null and void, and her children were declared to be bastards, who could not rule. Richard had Edward, and later his 9-year-old brother put in the Tower, supposedly for their protection. Now Richard was king, Richard III. Anne reluctantly had to leave her sick son, and join her husband in London where they were crowned king and queen.Potential reader: I will leave you there. Richard has gone into history and literature as the wicked uncle and bad, hunchbacked king. Was that true? Jean Plaidy has a different take on the whole thing. She paints Richard as a loyal, kind man, who was not seeking kingship, and who would never murder his nephews. Please read this exciting book, and then you decide.There is more about the two little princes in the tower in Plaidy's next book about Elizabeth of York, the wife of Henry VII.
