"The Lady of the Rivers" (Touchstone Books), by Philippa Gregory: The third novel in Philippa Gregory's Cousins' War series is the best yet, a lively tale of witchcraft and romance set amid civil wars in England and France.
"The Lady of the Rivers" focuses on Jacquetta of Luxembourg, who married the much-older Duke of Bedford when he ruled a vast area of France on behalf of his nephew, the mentally unstable King Henry VI of England. In Gregory's telling, the duke was obsessed with finding secret formulas that could turn common metal to gold or bring everlasting life. He was interested in Jacquetta because the women in her family were supposed to be able to foretell the future, and she spends much of the two-plus years of their marriage looking into mirrors while the duke and his alchemist eagerly await her visions.
The duke dies quickly, and Jacquetta embarks for England to avoid another arranged marriage. She has fallen in love with the duke's handsome young squire, and they marry secretly. This briefly angers Henry VI, but the ambitious and capable couple are soon back in his good graces. Jacquetta becomes a favorite of the king's wife, Margaret of Anjou, while her husband is appointed to numerous administrative posts.
The couple rise to positions of influence as England is disintegrating into civil war between the Houses of Lancaster and York. Jacquetta and her husband are strong supporters of Henry IV and his House of Lancaster, but her daughter Elizabeth Woodville later marries the York king, Edward IV.
Gregory's first novel in the Cousins' War series focused on Elizabeth, but even then it seemed she really wanted to write about Jacquetta. In the author's note for "The White Queen," Gregory says she knew she had a story to tell when she discovered Jacquetta had been tried for witchcraft and came from a family supposedly descended from a water goddess. This was dangerous stuff in an era when women of all ranks were vulnerable to accusations of witchcraft. The merest whispers could result in divorce, abandonment, imprisonment and even death.
