The White Princess

            Some may call The White Princess a sequel to The White Queen.  I would call it a continuation of the story.  That’s because The White Princess pretty much starts where The White Queen leaves off.  That place is with Henry Tudor being king, and Princess Elizabeth as his betrothed.     

                Despite what may seem to be a good, positive start to a mini-series, it’s actually not.  Henry (Jacob Collins-Levy) and Elizabeth (Jodie Comer) don’t want to be married.  In fact, they can’t stand each other.  Henry hates the fact that Elizabeth not only loved, but was sexually involved with the king that came before him.  It enrages him so much, that Henry becomes determined to humiliate Elizabeth in any way he can.  He tries, and almost succeeds, in sexually assaulting Elizabeth, but she manages to put a stop to it.  Still determined to have the upper hand, Henry informs Elizabeth that he and his mother, Margaret Beaufort (Michelle Fairley), have come up with the stipulation that Henry will not marry Elizabeth until she proves she is fertile.  Elizabeth is forced to go along with the plan, but she desperately hopes it doesn’t work.  She truly loved the former king, Richard III, and hates Henry for playing a part in his death.  Elizabeth hates Henry and the thought of marrying him so much that when she finds out she is expecting a child, she tries to terminate the pregnancy.  Her mother, Queen Elizabeth (Essie Davis), intervenes.  It is not out of true concern for her daughter or grandchild, though.  She intervenes because Elizabeth marrying Henry is part of her master plan.  She is the one who set up this marriage for Elizabeth, and she is determined to see it through.

                Actually, this planning and maneuvering is what ultimately unites Henry and Elizabeth.  Both of their mothers have controlled their lives in order to put forth their own plans for their children, family, and the country.  It is with this shared difficulty between them, and their upcoming child, that Henry and Elizabeth start to fall it love.  It’s not smooth sailing from this point on, though.  Their mothers still cause problems between them.  Inevitably, Queen Elizabeth will do something that makes Henry question his wife’s motives and loyalty.  Then Henry will follow his mother’s wishes instead of thinking for himself, forcing Elizabeth to question what kind of man Henry wants to be.  On and on this goes, causing problems between Elizabeth and Henry through the years.  As if that is not enough to deal with, the actions on the outside of the castle play a factor in their relationship too.

Truth be told, not everyone is happy that Henry is king.  It does not matter that Henry married Elizabeth, daughter of King Edward IV and a York, uniting the warring families of York and Tudor.  They do not want Henry on the throne.  That’s it.  The biggest opponent to Henry’s reign is the Duchess of Burgundy (Joanne Whalley).  Not only is she not happy about the trading sanctions Henry has placed on her, but she is also the sister of Edward IV and Richard III.  Tired of people she cares about dying, the Duchess almost declares peace with Henry.  Then her beloved step-daughter is killed while horse racing with one of Henry’s men.  After that, it is all-out war.

                Poor Elizabeth is very much caught in the middle of these warring factions, those who want Henry on the throne, and those who want him off.  Her cousin Teddy (Rhys Connah, Albert de Jongh) is put in the tower because he is perceived as a threat to the crown.  A young man claiming to be Elizabeth’s brother, Richard (Patrick Gibson), shows up in Burgundy, with the Duchess supporting, and pushing, his right to the throne.  Elizabeth’s mother goes along with the Duchess’s plan to put this young man on the throne, and she expects Elizabeth to as well.  Richard getting on the throne would mean Elizabeth would have to give up everything she and her family have.  Everything they have worked for would be gone, instead, going to this young man claiming to be Richard.  Unfortunately for Elizabeth, her mother and the rest of her family cannot see what Elizabeth’s problem with this is.  They don’t understand why Elizabeth is not fully willing to give up everything, especially for someone who may be an imposter.  On top of the pressure from her family, Henry is also once again questioning Elizabeth’s loyalty because of what is going on.  Fortunately, Elizabeth does eventually manage to convince Henry she is with him through thick and thin, but it is an exhausting process while she does it.

                Then Richard arrives in town and Elizabeth has to start all over again.  Actually, not only does Henry start to doubt Elizabeth once again, but he also goes a little mad.  Determined to humiliate the young man claiming to be Richard, Henry makes Richard take on the role of a servant, and then starts wooing his wife.  This does not sit well with Elizabeth, but when she confronts Henry, he accuses her of being in love with Richard, never once thinking that the real problem is he’s humiliating the wife he claims to love.  Eventually, Elizabeth tells Henry the whole story about Richard.  How he was saved from going to the tower with his brother as a boy, but that she thought he had been killed when their house was raided years before.  This story and secret that Elizabeth has been keeping of course does not go over well with Henry, but this time he and Elizabeth seem to get through the discord pretty quickly.  This is good because Elizabeth is desperately trying to figure out how to save Richard and Teddy’s lives. 

The problem is, Henry’s mother wants Richard and Teddy gone.  So does the queen of Spain.  Queen Isabella (Rossy de Palma) will not let her daughter become betrothed to Elizabeth and Henry’s son unless both threats to the throne are dead.  With Richard foiling nearly every plan Elizabeth has to save him, their cousin Margaret (Rebecca Benson) messing up another that might have worked, and a curse hanging over everything, Elizabeth starts to run out the options.  Eventually, the one she really dreads is the only one that remains.

                There is not as much blood, sex, violence, or nudity in The White Princess as there was in The White Queen.  By comparison, there’s hardly any at all.  Most of what happens in this mini-series is plotting scheming, and the fall-out that occurs as a result of both.  Henry and Elizabeth are usually the ones forced to deal with the fall-out others have created.  Elizabeth especially, although there were times where she did some scheming of her own.

                Even with all that was going on, I really had to wonder about Henry at times.  Prone to tantrums in the beginning, Henry would often fly off the handle when Elizabeth said or did something he did not like.  She would not back down, then he would go off again.  One big reason for Henry’s behavior was his mother.  He would always listen to her guidance about things and did not take the time to fully listen to what Elizabeth had to say.  His mother’s word was the right word, that was it.  It wasn’t until much later that Henry figured out his mother was not the one to listen to, as he began to discover the lengths she went to in order to get him on the throne.  When Henry finally figures out who he should listen to, it is a relief to see him come to his senses, although, how he handled coming to those senses was not the best.               

                With all that Elizabeth had to go through, I certainly felt badly for her, but the ones I really felt badly for were Teddy and his sister.  I think Teddy had some mental health difficulties from the start, and they were only made worse by being put into the tower as a young boy.  Out of love and concern for her brother, Margaret spent years pleading with Elizabeth to get him out.  While Elizabeth did try, it was not enough, and eventually Margaret got fed up.  Sadly, Margaret getting fed up is eventually what led to both her and Teddy’s demise.  She aligned herself with the Duchess (who didn’t really care about her or Teddy’s well-being) and carried out a plan that upset one of Elizabeth’s intending to save Richard and Teddy.  Margaret’s sweet husband had tried to warn Margaret about getting involved, but she was too tired of being the quiet one to listen, leading to devastating consequences.

                As with The White Queen, I spent some time on Wikipedia figuring out all the family lines and seeing which parts of the story were true.  It was interesting to find that some of the storylines were based upon theories rather than fact, which was something I had wondered about.  Some of the storylines I had never heard about historically (that did not mean they could not be true, though), and I thought they might be a creation of literary license.  To find out that there were actual theories on pretty much every event that happened in the mini-series was absolutely fascinating.

                I would really love it if whoever adapted author Philippa Gregory’s The White Queen and The White Princess into these mini-series would also do that with her other books set in this era.  There could be a whole series of mini-series with all the books she has written.  While I wait for that to happen, I will highly consider going back and watching The Tudors again.