{"id":940,"date":"2012-11-27T09:34:51","date_gmt":"2012-11-27T16:34:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lindabrinson.com\/?p=940"},"modified":"2012-11-27T09:34:51","modified_gmt":"2012-11-27T16:34:51","slug":"history-and-mystery-a-royal-novel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lindabrinson.com\/?p=940","title":{"rendered":"History and mystery, a royal novel"},"content":{"rendered":"

Anne Barnhill, a novelist of the Tudor era, takes a look at a new work from a prominent British historian who has successfully ventured into historical fiction in recent years.<\/p>\n

By Anne Barnhill<\/p>\n

A DANGEROUS INHERITANCE. By Alison Weir. Ballantine Books.\u00a0 498 pages. $27.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>In her fourth historical novel, renowned historian Alison Weir brings together the stories of Katherine Plantagenet, the base-born daughter of the notorious Richard III, and Katherine Grey, Lady Jane Grey\u2019s sister.\u00a0Told from alternating points of view and separated by about 50 years, the lives of these distant relatives seem to echo one another.\u00a0 Each carries royal blood, and each falls in love with a man who is forbidden to her.\u00a0When Katherine Grey is exploring the ancient wing of her new husband\u2019s (Henry, Lord Herbert) house, she discovers a painting of a beautiful young girl, a painting that haunts her.\u00a0 She wonders about this young girl and why she looks so sad.<\/p>\n

Of course, the girl is Katherine Plantagenet.\u00a0Kate, as she is called, is the pampered daughter of Richard III and she sees her father in the best possible light.\u00a0When she and her stepmother, Anne Neville, travel to London for Richard\u2019s coronation, Kate begins to hear ugly rumors about her father, rumors she refuses to believe.\u00a0 It is bruited about that Richard murdered Henry VI under orders of his brother, King Edward IV.\u00a0And then, she hears her father has done away with the Princes in the Tower, her own cousins.\u00a0 She cannot believe the father she loves could be capable of such a brutal act.<\/p>\n

As the lives of these women continue to intersect, Katherine Grey becomes embroiled in the mystery of the young princes.\u00a0While she is imprisoned by her cousin, Elizabeth I, for marrying without permission, she is able to gather more information, befriending her sympathetic jailor and stimulating his own interest in the supposed murders.\u00a0 As both women deal with their fates and their ill-starred romances, it becomes evident that having royal blood is not necessarily an advantage.<\/p>\n

Weir does an excellent job setting the scene; we are squarely in the Tudor period and the details are delightful.\u00a0 Here is an example:<\/p>\n

My room is beautiful, lavish!\u00a0 The tester bed is carved, gilded, and built on a dais.\u00a0 The curtains are of rich red damask looped with gold tassels, the counterpane of costly cloth of gold, with lozenges embroidered with the lions of Pembroke on a background of red and blue velvet.\u00a0 Over a chair is draped the most exquisite nightgown of crimson satin edged with pearls.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em>A bowl of dried petals gives off a fragrant scent.<\/em><\/p>\n

Though the story is richly told, the continuing shifts in point of view interrupt the flow, often halting the narrative of one woman just as the story begins to engage the reader.\u00a0 There is also some confusion as to which woman\u2019s story is taking place, due partly to their sharing a name but also to a lack of differentiation between the two women.\u00a0 However, these are minor flaws; overall, the book is an exciting foray into a mystery that has stumped historians for years: What happened to the Princes in the Tower?<\/p>\n