Authors: Anne Easter Smith
Tags: #Fiction, #Historical, #Biographical, #Romance, #General
A
LSO
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A Rose for the Crown
Touchstone
A Division of Simon & Schuster, Inc.
1230 Avenue of the Americas
New York, NY 10020
www.SimonandSchuster.com
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Copyright © 2008 by Anne Easter Smith
All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form whatsoever. For information address Touchstone Subsidiary Rights Department,
1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020.
First Touchstone trade paperback edition February 2008
TOUCHSTONE and colophon are registered trademarks of Simon & Schuster, Inc.
Designed by Mary Austin Speaker
Manufactured in the United States of America
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
ISBN-13: 978-0-7432-7731-0
ISBN-10: 0-7432-7731-7
eISBN: 978-1-4391-4461-9
With love to my husband, Scott,
who encourages me every day to dream
Content
A Touchstone Reading Group Guide
Acknowledgments
It is my great pleasure to acknowledge and thank several people for helping me tell Margaret of York’s story. First and foremost, my friend Maryann Long, who agreed to accompany me on my journey to Belgium to follow Margaret’s footsteps. She was Passepartout to my Phileas: carrying the maps, taking hundreds of photographs, acting as a sounding board as I plotted out the novel and saving my life as I blithely stepped off sidewalks onto busy Belgian boulevards thinking I was back in the fifteenth century. We discovered Burgundy together and shared many fascinating excursions. I must also thank my sister, Jill Phillips, who once again hosted me in London while I went to the British Library, the Public Record Office and other venues. Through her friend Jo Cottrell I was able to view the only medieval portion of Greenwich Palace (now the Royal Naval College), which is not generally open to the public. Thanks, too, to Ann Wroe, author of
The Perfect Prince
(entitled
Perkin
in UK), whose knowledge of Margaret was invaluable to my research and who gamely photocopied the entire Vander Linden’s
Itinéraires de Charles, duc de Bourgogne, Marguerite d’York et Marie de Bourgogne
for me. Claire Denenberg, nurse practitioner extraordinaire, helped me with medical aspects of the book.
I would also like to acknowledge: Professor Marc Boone of the University of Ghent, who graciously gave me a crash course in Burgundian politics in just under two hours in his office; Professor Emeritus Walter Prevenier of the same university, who through an e-mail exchange pointed me in the direction of fifteenth-century buildings in Mechelen; medieval-history consultant Henk’t Jong of Dordrecht, Netherlands; my friend Kiek van Kempen for help with Dutch/Flemish; and Pamela Butler, membership chair of the U.S. branch of the Richard III Society, who kindly lent me Joseph Calmette’s
Philip the Good
and
Charles the Bold
for more than a year even before she had read them herself.
My thanks to erstwhile singing partner and graphic artist Patrick Duniho of Plattsburgh, N.Y., for contributing his creative talent to the chart and map at the front of the book.
I would be remiss not to thank again my tireless agent, Kirsten Manges, and my overworked and brilliant editor, Trish Todd.
And finally, to my family for supporting my new career venture, all love and thanks.
Dramatis Personae
*Fictional Characters
ENGLAND
York family
see Plantagenet Family Tree
Lancaster family
see Plantagenet Family Tree
Woodville family
Sir Anthony (later Lord Scales and second Earl Rivers)
Eliza Scales,
his wife
Elizabeth Grey (later Queen Elizabeth),
his eldest sister
Jacquetta (formerly duchess of Bedford),
his mother
Richard, first Earl Rivers,
his father
Sir Edward,
his brother
John,
his brother
various brothers and sisters
Neville family
Cecily, duchess of York (see Genealogy chart)
Richard, earl of Warwick,
her nephew
Countess Anne,
his wife
Isabel (later duchess of Clarence),
Warwick’s daughter
(see Genealogy chart)
Anne (later duchess of Gloucester),
her sister
(see Genealogy chart)
George Neville,
Warwick’s brother, chancellor of England
Miscellaneous
Anne of Caux,
the York family nursemaid
*Jane Percy,
Margaret’s attendant
*Ann Herbert,
Margaret’s attendant
*Beatrice Metcalfe,
Margaret’s attendant
*Fortunata,
Margaret’s attendant
John Harper,
soldier and messenger in Edward’s train
William, Lord Hastings,
Edward’s councilor and chamberlain
John Howard (later Lord Howard and duke of Norfolk),
Edward’s councilor
John Tiptoft, Earl of Worcester,
Edward’s councilor
Jehan Le Sage and Richard L’Amoureux,
Edward’s jesters
Lady Eleanor Butler,
one of Edward’s mistresses
Isobel, countess of Essex,
lady-in-waiting to Duchess Cecily
*Francis,
Anthony Woodville’s squire
*Brother Damian,
monk at Reading Abbey
Dr. Fryse,
one of Edward’s physicians
Señor Martin Berenger,
emissary of the court of Aragon
*Master Vaughan,
Margaret’s steward
Burgundy, (see Plantagenet Family Tree)
Charles, count of Charolais (later duke of Burgundy),
Margaret’s husband
Duke Philip,
his father
Dowager Duchess Isabella,
his mother
Countess Isabelle,
his first wife
Mary,
his daughter
Antoine, count de la Roche, the Grand Bastard of Burgundy,
his stepbrother
Maximilian,
archduke of Austria and heir to the Holy Roman Empire
Marie de Charny,
Charles’s stepsister and Margaret’s chief attendant
Pierre de Bauffremont, count of Charny,
her husband
Anne of Burgundy (later Lady Ravenstein),
Charles’s stepsister
Adolphe of Cleves, Lord Ravenstein,
Margaret’s councilor
Lord Louis of Gruuthuse,
merchant of Bruges and Margaret’s councilor
Guillaume de la Baume, Lord of Irlain,
Margaret’s chevalier d’honneur