Review 535: The Stolen Crown

The Stolen Crown: The Secret Marriage that Forever Changed the Fate of England by Susan Higginbotham
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This historical fiction takes place in the mid to late 15th century in England, during the time known as the War of the Roses, with the Houses of York and Lancaster trying to gain the throne.

The main character viewpoints are from Katherine (Kate) Woodville and her husband Harry Stafford. Kate and Harry married while being children, Kate being quite young and Harry being three years older, still young himself. These two are also the Duke and Duchess of Buckingham.

The beginning of the book stars with young Kate waking up in the middle of the night to discover a secret marriage taking place in the family church. Her eldest sister Elizabeth, known as Bessie, marrying King Edward IV. After a brief time, the king announced the marriage and brought the entire Woodville family to court. Then marriages were arranged, and this was how young Kate became the Duchess and in a very important position.

The Woodville family and King Edward IV were the House of York, while Harry, Duke of Buckingham came from a family on his mother’s side that sided with the House of Lancaster. This occasionally made him conflicted.

Much of what was described in the book was about who was trying to usurp the throne. There were relations killed as they were seen as a threat, or possibly were plotting against the sitting king. And the kings did change, briefly as Edward IV was sent into exile, then gained back the throne as King Henry VI was briefly back on the throne.

After the death of King Edward IV, his eldest boy would become King Edward V at 12 years of age. His uncle Richard, Duke of Gloucester, being the named the Lord Protector until the king would reach the age of maturity. Richard ended up having a different idea and became King Richard III.

This part of the stolen crown came late in the book. It seemed odd to me that main event the book was titled after took so long to get to. The subtitle refers to the marriage that came in the beginning. I don’t feel like any of this is a spoiler since it is based on the facts of history.

Since I don’t know British history very well, particularly of hundreds of years ago, this book helped to expand some of my knowledge. There are many areas of fiction in this book: conversations, of course, motives, and describing something that happened, when in history it is unknown.

I enjoyed the book, although the beginning was a little rough for me with all the characters and names, nicknames, titles and such, trying to keep this all straight. I’ve had the eBook for many years (ten), which I referred to particularly the list of the characters which helped. However, I listened to an audiobook which had two narrators, one for each point of view of Harry and Kate and was well done.