The White Queen

             There is so much to say about this mini-series that it’s hard for me to decide what to say.  Probably the most important thing is for me to first give you a warning.  If you have a problem with nudity, sex, blood, or violence, The White Queen is not for you, because there is a lot of all of that.

                Elizabeth Woodville (Rebecca Ferguson) only wanted to get the lands back that were rightfully hers.  They were taken from her after the death of her husband because her husband believed in supporting King Henry VI.  She stood on the side of the road to plead her case to King Edward IV (Max Irons), never expecting to fall in love.

                Much to everyone’s surprise, Edward falls in love with Elizabeth too.  He is a philanderer known to stage false marriages in order to get women to go to bed with him.  Everyone suspects that is what he has done with Elizabeth, and that once he has achieved his goal, he will never see Elizabeth again.  That’s why it comes as such a surprise that Edward returns to Elizabeth once the battle he is fighting is over.  Many of the doubts surrounding Edward’s feelings for Elizabeth cease, but that does not mean everyone is happy about the match.                         

                Edward’s cousin and advisor, the Earl of Warwick (James Frain), had planned for Edward to marry someone from France in order to secure their alliance.  When Edward disobeys and announces his marriage to Elizabeth, that is when all the serious problems begin.

                Elizabeth was not someone Warwick liked even before she was married to Edward.  She is a commoner, which gives Warwick reason alone to dislike her (not to mention her husband’s loyalty to the former king), but when Elizabeth becomes married to Edward, Warwick comes to hate her.  This hatred for Elizabeth lasts through the rest of Warwick’s life, and he poisons those around him with it, making sure the vendetta against Elizabeth survives long after his death.

                Simply hating Elizabeth is not the only thing Warwick does, though.  He also tries to get Edward off the throne, despite being the one to help get him on it.  Edward will no longer follow everything Warwick says, so in Warwick’s mind, Edward must be removed.  His first attempt at doing this is by using Edward’s own brother, George (David Oakes), and trying to create a rebellion.  When that doesn’t work, Warwick aligns himself with the former queen, Margaret of Anjou (Veerle Baetens), to get her husband, Henry VI (David Shelley), back on the throne.  That only works for so long before Edward is able to reclaim his throne.

                Edward reclaiming his throne does not sit well with his brother George.  He married one of Warwick’s daughters, Isabel (Eleanor Tomlinson), as a signal for others to go to battle for him.  Since the plot he had with Warwick to become king did not work, George is now stuck with a wife he does not want.  Angry at not having power over anything, George turns his attention to attacking Elizabeth.  Isabel already thinks Elizabeth has cursed her and her child, making it very easy for George to work off of that paranoia.  George claims Elizabeth poisoned their dog, then blames Elizabeth for Isabel’s death.  He tells anyone who will listen that Elizabeth is a witch.  The one who takes this accusation most to heart is Isabel’s sister, Anne (Faye Marsay).

                Anne was married to Henry VI’s son, Edward (Joey Batey), in an attempt by her father to align himself with the former queen.  Anne and Edward’s marriage is short as Edward dies in battle.  As a result, Anne’s love for Edward IV’s brother, Richard (Aneurin Barnard), is reignited.  George, as the young woman’s guardian, does not approve of Anne and Richard’s relationship.  The only solution Anne and Richard see is to run off together.  This does not make George happy, but it does not distract him from his mission of planting vicious thoughts about Elizabeth into other people’s minds.  As I mentioned earlier, when his wife dies, Anne becomes his main target.

                These thoughts against Elizabeth stay with Anne when her husband becomes king.  Richard is the last remaining brother as first George dies then Edward.  On Edward’s death bed, he asks Richard to look out for his young son who is now king.  Richard agrees to follow Edward’s wishes, but Anne and his mother, the Duchess of York (Caroline Goodall), get into his head.  Richard has both the young king and his brother put into the Tower of London and declared illegitimate, making Richard king.

                Still, even with the banishment of the two young princes, the animosity against Elizabeth does not stop.  She works to get her older son back (the other is a replacement Elizabeth created with a local boy) by aligning herself with Lady Margaret Beaufort (Amanda Hale), a woman who has been trying for years to get her own son on the throne.  This is not the wisest decision Elizabeth could have made because despite saying she will help Elizabeth get her sons (Lady Margaret does not know one is a replacement), Lady Margaret’s main goal is still to get her son, Henry Tudor (Michael Marcus), on the throne.  That means Elizabeth’s sons are in the way and a threat to her plan.  In Lady Margaret’s mind, Elizabeth’s young sons must die.

                The thing is, one day the boys simply disappear and no one quite knows what happened to them.  They are just gone.  Everyone blames Richard, but he completely denies ever harming the boys.  Somehow, he convinces Elizabeth of his innocence and she allows her daughter, Elizabeth (Freya Mavor), to go to court.  It is there that Richard falls in love with the young Elizabeth, who is also his niece.  This affair does not last long, though.  With his son and wife dead, Richard goes into battle against Henry Tudor for the throne.  He is killed, and now Henry VII is king.

                This is pretty much where the mini-series ends.  It’s funny, that nearly all of the people who plotted against Elizabeth are now dead.  Except for Lady Margaret, she has outlived them all.  She did this with the accusations of her being a witch technically being true.  Elizabeth did occasionally practice witchcraft, but I don’t know if I would call her a full-fledged witch.  Either way, even though so many people were out to get her, in many ways, Elizabeth is the one to come out on top.

                As fascinating as I found this mini-series, it was often difficult to watch how badly these women were treated.  They were bought and sold by men like property.  Then they were blamed for things they had nothing to do with (this happened to more than just Elizabeth), and accused of whatever insane thing that came to mind.  The thing is, this poor treatment was not reserved to the men.  The women did it to each other, too.  That made this mini-series even more difficult to watch.

                What makes this mini-series even more interesting is this stuff actually happened!  The White Queen may have been based off of three of author Philippa Gregory’s books, but the events are real.  Yes, there is some literary license, I understand.  However, the license is created around historical events.  I spent a lot of time on Wikipedia looking further into the people and events from this mini-series.  Because of this, I learned so much about this time in history that previously I knew very little about.