The Woodville Conspiracy

by Caroline Newark

It is 1474 and England is finally at peace after 25 years of internecine bloodshed where Yorkists and Lancastrians battled for the crown. On the throne sits Edward IV with his beautiful queen, Elizabeth Woodville, at his side. But past grudges have not been forgotten and beneath the intoxicating glamour of the royal court lies a secret with death trailing in its wake.

Into this glorious summer of Yorkist rule comes Cecily, Lady Harington, a wealthy young heiress, married to Thomas Grey, eldest son of the queen's first marriage - "a nothing" in the words of Cecily's mother. William Hastings, Cecily's beloved stepfather, is the king's closest friend but he is also the queen's enemy.

As the mystery surrounding her mother-in-law deepens and people start dying, Cecily attempts to uncover the truth but when chaos engulfs her family and the two young princes disappear into the Tower, she finds herself alone and in danger as those she loves and once trusted, prove false.

The Woodville Conspiracy is a story of love and betrayal with at its heart a secret which will forever lie buried beneath the battlefield at Bosworth.

350 pages, Kindle Edition

Published April 5, 2023

Reviews

[Elena · Rating 3 out of 5]

At first, I was intrigued by the book. I would have never thought about Cecily Harington as the main charachter for an historical novel, but she could have worked, because she was well positioned into the events: coming from a family of staunch Yorkists, niece to Warwick, stepdaughter to Lord Hastings, wife of Thomas Grey and daughter in law to Elizabeth Woodville. But I felt the author didn't really handled it well, and Cecily managed to come out as a flat charachter, who doesn't really know what to do or what to say. She deems herself clever and resourceful, but she's more naive than a 3 years old and everyone lead her by the nose at every occasion. At least, the author could have invested on her domestic side, her children, her life with them: not even that, since is not even clear how many she had, and they are just brought up once ot twice in a casual conversation. The book is not bad, but is quite flat and unremarkable. Two or three things were annoying too: for example we are said that Cecily expects to marry a Duke or even one of the sons of the Duke of Burgundy... ok, let's all calm down and take a deep breath. I can understand that Thomas Grey is a mr Noone, but come on... a duke? She is the daughter of a knight, for God's sake! I would have completely left out the ridiculous and improbable love story between her and William Catesby, and some claims were rather weird, such as the Duke of Buckingham with Lancastrian descents, when he was rather of Gloucesterian descents, his claim coming from the fifth son of Edward III, the Duke of Gloucester. And what about fields of corn in the XV century in England? And finally, no, Elizabeth of York was NOT pregnant before her wedding because Tudor wanted to test her fertility, this rubbish comes from Philippa Gregory alone and it is utterly ridiculous.