The Stolen Crown by Susan Higginbotham

The Stolen Crown is the third novel that I have read by Susan Higginbotham. I really enjoy her writing style, because it's easy to follow, and the dialogue and actions don't feel forced at all. Her descriptions of events and dialogue between characters always seems to flow.
The Stolen Crown is written in first person point of view, told by Katherine Woodville and Harry, Duke of Buckingham. They are looking back on their lives and telling the reader their story, and what lead up to their present situation, and to Harry's eventual downfall at such a young age. It's a touching story, made even more so because it is told in first person, so as a reader you get attached to the characters. We are introduced to Kate and Harry as children, and we are able to read about their lives and the mistakes they made in their youth.
The novel begins with King Edward IV and his scandelous marriage to Elizabeth Woodville, and then it focuses on one of the advantageous marriages that were made for her sisters. Katherine Woodville is the youngest sister of six girls (i think), and as she comes from little money, she has no dowry. Were it not for her sister marrying the King, it would have been difficult to find Kate an advantageous marriage.  However, when Elizabeth becomes Queen everything changes, and Kate ends up married to the richest Duke in England, Harry, Duke of Buckingham.
We all know what happens to King Edward IV (he falls ill and dies unexpectedly), and the mysterious disappearance of his sons (one of whom was King Edward V), and how Richard III had the children of Elizabeth and Edward IV declared bastards so that they could not inherit the throne, and also how Richard III took the throne as his own. Harry, Duke of Buckingham and the newly crowned King Richard III become the best of friends, and Richard III raises Harry up high, and grants him land as well as many other honors, which of course brings Harry more enemies (mo' money, mo' problems, right? lol).
Susan's version of what happened to the princes in the Tower (one of many versions), is that Richard III ordered them to be killed, so that they could not come between himself and the throne. There are many different theories about what happened to the princes, who killed them; and the rumor that Richard had his nephews offed is the one that Susan Higginbotham is going with in this novel. According to The Stolen Crown, Harry is so overwelmed with guilt at the thought of being friends and supporting a King who would kill children, that he helped to come up with a plot to overthrow his former friend, King Richard III, and in turn to place Henry Tudor on the throne. Things don't go as planned with the plot against King Richard III, and Harry ends up getting caught, put to trial, and sentenced to be beheaded. He tells his story in the first person as he is awaiting his death, while Kate tells her story at the same time, while she is banished to Brecon (one of their land holdings).
I am up in the air about Richard's involvement in his nephew's disappearances. I've read several different books on the mysterious disappearances of Edward IV's sons, Edward V and Richard. Some author's blame King Richard III, because he didn't want them to come between himself and the throne. Other's believe that it was King Henry VII who had them killed, so that he could take the throne without the threat of York blood still looming over his reign. Then there are rumors that Harry, the Duke of Buckingham himself did it, or Henry VII's mother, Margaret Beaufort. I tend to be convinced of a different person's guilt after every book I read about this event in history! Who knows, maybe Richard III was the horrible man that was depicted in this novel, and in many others, as well as Shakespeare's play. I haven't researched the disappearance of the princes all that much, but even those who have devoted their lives to researching the princes have not found any conclusive evidence about who killed them, or even what really happened to them. They just seemed to disappear shortly after Richard took the crown.
Although I'm not sure if Richard ordered his nephews to be killed, nor do I have any idea of who it could have been if it wasn't him, I still enjoyed this novel. It made me look at the event from an entirely new perspective. I had never read anything from The Duke of Buckingham's point of view, and I really had no idea who Kate Woodville was. This may not have been my favorite of Susan's books, but I liked it for the reason that I liked her other books; it allows me, as the reader, to learn about historical figures that I normally would not read about, and she gets inside of her characters heads and makes them come alive to the reader. I also like that I was able to follow these two characters from their childhood, where they were first introduced, and through their lives as they grew together as a couple, and then grew a part again towards the end.
The Stolen Crown was a good and easy read, and I would recommend it to anyone who is interested in the disappearance of the princes or in one of the theory's of who ordered the princes deaths. It was interesting to see another perspective dealing with the rise and fall of King Richard III.

Goodreads.com = Amazing

I have no clue how I didn't know about the site Good Reads before starting this blog! It's great, and it would have been so useful over the years had I known about it! I was always googling "historical fiction" trying to find new authors that I might be interested in reading. I'm the type of person who finds a book I love, and then I'll read every book that author has written. That would be why I've read all of Philippa Gregory, Robin Maxwell, Bertrice Smalls, Susan Higginbotham, and C.W. Gortner's books! Good Reads makes it so easy to find books that I like reading.
It's funny that I spent the past 15 or so years thinking that I was strange for loving historical fiction so much, and then I decide to check out blogspot (because I decided that I needed to start keeping track of the books I read), and I discovered that there are so many people out there who love historical fiction as much as I do, probably even more! My friends and family could never understand why I would want to read about Kings and Queens and other historical figures, hell, half my friends don't even know who King Henry VIII was or whether the Civil War or Revolutionary War happened first! I have always been fascinated by  history. I wanted to major in history when I went to college, but I knew it would be pretty much impossible to get a job. I ended up graduating with my B.A. in English Literature, so yeah, there were no jobs for that either (which is why I went back for my M.A. in Education!) I would love to teach history, but only if it was what I wanted to teach! I would despise teaching politics, but that's a part of being a Social Studies teacher now. Plus, the History teaching field is even more flooded than English, so it would be even harder to find a job.
Anyways, I'm rambling again. I am just extremely excited to find a couple of sites where I can finally share my love of reading historical fiction (and just reading in general). I love being able to read other's blogs, and I love Good Reads, because it allows me to see what other people, who have similar interests as me, are reading as well.
The only problem now is that I have about 15 books or more, sitting at home waiting for me to read them, and I want to read them all at once! I'm reading two books at the same time right now! I'm re-reading "A Clash of Kings" by George R.R. Martin, because the HBO show based on his series, "A Game of Thrones" begins in April, and I want to refresh myself with the books. I'm also reading Jean Plaidy's "A Murder Most Royal." I like it, but it's a little slow. It might seem a little slow because I've read around ten other books about Anne Boleyn, so everything in the book I've read or heard about Anne before. I guess I just thought it was going to be a lot more interesting than it is. I'm sure I'll finish it, but I wish I could put it down and start a new one! If I did that I'd end up forgetting everything I had read up to my stopping point, and have to start over again, so I just need to finish it. I think I'll read "A Clash of Kings" first though!

The Traitor's Wife by Susan Higginbotham

This is definitely one of my top ten historical fiction picks. I had never read a book that really gave you the dirty, DETAILED details of what was going on with Edward II of England. Yeah, I read Braveheart, and it hinted at the debauchery that was going on with Edward II and Piers Gaveston and Hugh Despenser, and there have been other books that mentioned that he was a homosexual, but this book really went into it! I think that's why I liked it so much. It didn't beat around the bush, or hint at certain activities, it went straight to the nitty gritty! Susan goes into detail on the homosexual relations between Edward II and Piers, and she also goes into detail about Edward II's relationship with Eleanor Despenser (Hugh's wife) as well as his relationship with her husband Hugh! There was somewhat of a crazy love triangle going on at one point in the novel! Edward II definitely gets around in this book!
The novel starts out with Hugh and Eleanor getting married, and having a bunch of babies. Edward II is portrayed in the novel as historians portrayed him in life, which was as a weak King who gave too much to his favorites, and made poor decisions for his country. The people hated him as  King, and in return they also hated his favorites; and the fact that he bestowed so many gifts upon him. Susan tried to make Hugh seem like he was a decent guy, but it was a pretty impossible task, because Hugh Despenser was pretty much a villain while alive. His only redeeming quality in the novel is that he is shown as a good father and loving husband, well besides the fact that he was sleeping with the King behind his wife's back!
The book was pretty action packed, and it was hard to put down with the drama as well as the sexual misdeeds going on! After Edward II's affair with Piers ended (because Piers was exiled a couple of times and eventually ended up dead) Hugh and Edward started up their little affair. Of course none of this is proven, but it is believed that there was a sexual relationship going on between the King and Hugh, and historians seem to generally agree. In Susan's version, Hugh's wife Eleanor was unaware of what was really going on for the majority of the relationship, but who knows if she knew more than was let on in reality.
Towards the end of the book things come to a head. Isabel and Mortimer gather troops and rise up against the King to depose him. The people hate him, so they side with Isabel and her lover Mortimer (Isabel is Edward II's Queen, obviously not faithful), and the Queen and the people decide that they want to put his son Edward III on the throne and get rid of Ed the Second.
Hugh and Edward II make a desperate attempt to escape the country but end up getting captured and imprisoned. Hugh ends up dying a traitor's death with his guts being pulled out and all that nice stuff, and Edward abdicates the thrown in favor of his son Edward III in order to please the people. Edward II ends up dying mysteriously while under the care of some of Mortimer's men. Susan suggests that he was murdered by having a red hot fire poker shoved up through his ass into his innards (graphic, yes), but I don't think that anything about that was written down in a history book!
Overall, the book was great. I knew very little about Edward II before I read this novel. After reading "The Traitor's Wife" I felt like I had learned a great deal about that time period. Not only was I learning, but I was also being drawn in to all the crazy drama that was going on during that time, and in the character's lives. Since I wasn't very familiar with the time period of Edward II, there were some names of places and people that I had to look up, but other than that it was a good read that I thoroughly enjoyed. It was the first book I had read by Susan Higginbotham, and I am hooked! I've ordered and read all of her available books, and i like them all. She's an awesome author, who obviously knows her stuff, and has a style of writing that keeps the reader interested, and also gives lots of detail without getting tedious. I'd definitely recommend this one!