Philippa Gregory on BBC 4

[YonicScrewdriver]

The Real White Queen and Her Rivals

• programmes on Margaret Beaufort, Anne Neville and Elizabeth Woodville.

Just caught up on this.

It was an interesting program but I felt it, like Gregory's books, a tad too pro Elizabeth Woodville.

Without a doubt EW was incredibly intelligent and politically astute but I do wonder whether Edward V and Warwick's relationship would have broken down so irrevocably had EW not been so mercenary futhering her family.

I also think it was very unfair to say that JB was self serving when EW was just as not if more self serving. Had EW not been so single minded in furthering the Rivers family she may have had more political allies.

I did have to laugh when Gregory described JB as a heroine from the White Queen to the Constant Princess JB was portrayed in a less than flattering light.

I'm also slightly confused as to Gregory's u-turn on Anne Neville. In the White Queen AN was IMO portrayed as a helpless victim whereas in the documentary she was described as a "Lady Macbeth" figure.

Alas it's a trope of most historical fiction these days that AN is always portrayed as a victim or pawn.