I’ve read other Philippa Gregory novels and really enjoyed them. It was difficult for me to get through Three Sisters, Three Queens and I’m trying to determine what it was.
On one hand, Gregory takes the mostly unknown story of Queen Margaret of Scotland and makes her a feminist icon by having her marry whom she wanted, not who she was dictated to marry. She fought hard for the legacy of her son, the heir of Scotland and England and even battled against her 2nd husband for her reign.
On the other hand, Gregory makes Margaret out to be a petty, superficial, entitled brat who does nothing but compare herself to her sister, Queen Mary of France, and her sister-in-law, Queen Katherine of England, All of these women fought hard for their own rights, but are capricious with no further thought than themselves.
The story starts when Margaret is young and not married, and she shortly loses several members of her family. She’s married off, still quite young, to a much older King of Scotland to help broker a peace between the England and Scotland. Much of the history of this time period, that I know, centers on King Henry VII and his upheaval of the Catholic Church in England. Part of that story is in this novel, but more about what leads up to it from a Queen’s point of view. While I found many aspects of the period of time fascinating, I had a hard time getting past the pettiness of Queen Margaret.
Read April 2017
Il Libro PDX 