When Elizabeth Woodville secretly married Edward IV in 1464, she came with baggage: five brothers and six sisters. One of the sisters was already married, but there were five other girls who had to be provided for. And provide for them, Elizabeth and Edward did. Within a couple of years, each of the unmarried Woodville girls was espoused to an earl’s heir—except for Katherine Woodville, who made the grandest marriage of all. At around age seven, she was married to nine-year-old Henry Stafford, Duke of Buckingham.
At the time I began considering writing a novel about the Wars of the Roses, I didn’t immediately think of Katherine as my heroine. But as I delved further into my research, I realized her possibilities. Raised at her sister’s court, she had an excellent view of the events going on there. Moreover, I was fascinated by the story of Richard III’s rise to power, and no one had been more involved in that episode than Buckingham, Katherine’s husband. I was also eager to puzzle out why Buckingham turned against Richard within months of helping him to gain the throne—and if anyone knew why, it might well be Katherine. After all, she had been with Buckingham in the last days of his rebellion, before he made the flight that ended with his capture and execution. Finally, her interesting marital career didn’t end with Buckingham: Kate married Jasper Tudor, uncle to Henry VII, and Richard Wingfield, who was a dozen years her junior and who was the eleventh of twelve sons.
So the heroine of The Stolen Crown, Kate Woodville, was born. As Kate told her story, though, I realized that something was missing: Buckingham himself. In the pushy way so typical of characters in novels, he demanded a chapter to himself, and then another. At last I let him have his way, and I’m glad I did, because Buckingham gave me a perspective on his relationship with Richard that Kate, smart as she is, couldn’t have possibly managed.
Katherine Woodville’s personality is largely lost to history; we catch glimpses of her at various court occasions, but what she was thinking as she sat at those banquets or rode in those processions is something at which we can only guess.
That gave me the freedom to endow her with characteristics of my own creation, and whether I was right or way off the mark, I’ll probably never know. Still, I like to think that Katherine would recognize herself in the pages of The Stolen Crown—and that she would be pleased by my portrait of her.
THE STOLEN CROWN BY SUSAN HIGGINBOTHAM—IN STORES MARCH 2010
On May Day, 1464, six-year-old Katherine Woodville, daughter of a duchess who has married a knight of modest means, awakes to find her gorgeous older sister, Elizabeth, in the midst of a secret marriage to King Edward IV. It changes everything—for Kate and for England.
Then King Edward dies unexpectedly. Richard III, Duke of Gloucester, is named protector of Edward and Elizabeth’s two young princes, but Richard’s own ambitions for the crown interfere with his duties…
Lancastrians against Yorkists: greed, power, murder, and war. As the story unfolds through the unique perspective of Kate Woodville, it soon becomes apparent that not everyone is wholly evil—or wholly good.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Susan Higginbotham is the author of two historical fiction novels. The Traitor’s Wife, her first novel, is the winner of ForeWord Magazine’s 2005 Silver Award for historical fiction and is a Gold Medalist, Historical/Military Fiction, 2008 Independent Publisher Book Awards. She writes her own historical fiction blog and is a contributor to the blog Yesterday Revisited. Higginbotham has worked as an editor and an attorney, and lives in North Carolina with her family. For more information, please visit http://www.susanhigginbotham.com/
Thanks so much Susan please stop by again sometime!
Now for the Giveaway:
Thanks to Danielle Jackson of Sourcebooks, I am giving away 2 copies of The Stolen Crown!
Here are the rules:
1. For one entry, leave a comment. Please be sure to include your email address (if it isn’t available in your profile), so that I can contact you if you win. If I can’t find your email either in the comments or your profile, you will be disqualified!
2. For an extra entry, comment on my review post of The Stolen Crown, then come back to this post and let me know you did it.
3. For two more entries, post about this giveaway on your blog and leave link to your blog post in the comments. You will also get an entry for each person who tells me that they learned about this
giveaway from you.
3. For another 5 more entries: Become a Follower of my blog or subscribe to my blog through Google Reader or other subscription service. If you are already a subscriber or follower you still get the five extra entries! Please do not comment that you are a follower five times! I will give you the extra entries myself. I will delete any extra entries that you make as it will just confuse me when I go to pick the winners.
Sorry, the giveaway is only open US and Canadian residents only.
The winner’s mailing address: NO P.O. Boxes.
Only one entry per household/IP address.
This giveaway will end on Friday, April 9th at 11:59 P.M. E.S.T. The winners will be notified by email, so remember to include your email address in the comments, if it isn’t available in your profile! Winners must respond within three days or will be disqualified.
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