I will not attempt a book review here, and Smith had to stop somewhere, as Margaret's hero would in historical reality be married in a couple of years to someone else it was best to stop where she did.
Charles the Bold is portrayed very severely, and looking at his portrait, straight, simple and unadorned, I find it hard to picture him as the villain as he was in this book. He was probably very much a man of his times, and the sumptuousness of the Burgundian court required more conquest to perpetuate itself. (I suppose). He was, to me, a soldier no less strident than Henry V.
Margaret of Anjou was an enemy of Burgundy as a princess of France, and she never took her hatreds lightly. She has a small role in this novel, as she should. During the bulk of this time, having lost her husband and son, she was a ward, so to speak, of Louis XI, who allowed her space in his kingdom to fade out in poverty. Another 180 degree turn in the Wheel of Fortune.
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I have to say I wished Daughter of York had not ended when and as it did--to me it would have been far more interesting to see how Margaret of York coped with the events of the latter part of her life. The romantic note on which the book ended bothered me, especially knowing as I did the fate Anthony would meet at the hands of Margaret's beloved brother Richard.
It would be wonderful to read a good novel about Margaret of Anjou also.
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