The King's Curse

von Philippa Gregory

'Margaret, I have to tell you. There was a curse.' Elizabeth, my cousin, puts her hand in mine and I can feel her tremble. 'What curse?' 'It was that whoever took my brothers from the Tower, whoever put my brothers to death should die for it.' From the Number One bestselling author of THE WHITE QUEENcomes the riveting story of Margaret Pole, cousin of Elizabeth of York, and her unique view of Henry VIII's terrifying rise to power in Tudor England. As an heir to the Plantagenets, Margaret is seen by the King's mother (THE RED QUEEN) as a powerful threat to the Tudor claim to the throne. She is buried in marriage to a Tudor supporter - Sir Richard Pole, governor of Wales - and becomes guardian to Arthur, the young Prince of Wales, and his beautiful bride, Katherine of Aragon. But Margaret's destiny, as cousin to the queen (THE WHITE PRINCESS), is not for a life in the shadows. Tragedy throws her into poverty and only a royal death restores her to her place at young Henry VIII's court where she becomes chief lady-in-waiting to Queen Katherine. There she watches the dominance of the Spanish queen over her husband and her tragic decline. Amid the rapid deterioration of the Tudor court, Margaret must choose whether her allegiance is to the increasingly tyrannical Henry VIII or to her beloved queen. Caught between the old and the new, Margaret must find her own way, concealing deep within her the knowledge that an old curse cast upon all the Tudors is slowly coming true...